Inaudible Echo
by Yato-is-Best-Girl
Summary: Beryl Desiree, a deaf girl, a street-rat who steals from the trash cans of Rush Valley, has a fateful encounter with the Elric brothers after one of them saves her life. Now locked in a life-debt that can only be paid when she saves one of them, Beryl has to learn what it means to move forward instead of letting things remain the way they were before. (R&R! Fav & Follow! 3)
1. Walk Through a Valley

**INAUDIBLE ECHO**

 **Chapter 1: Walk Through a Valley and What's at the End?**

 _Dammit!_ The stupid cochlea screw was loose again. She sighed as she banged the palm of her hand against her left ear, trying to disperse that water-in-the-ears feeling that came whenever she didn't take care of her automail for a long time. If she banged enough times it usually went away, but it also left her with a rather annoying headache, and anyone who talked to her sounded muffled and far away, and maybe she should just cut her losses and see a real mechanic instead of pretending her hearing aids were in peak condition. They hadn't worked properly since she'd gotten them, and was too lazy or too poor to have them fixed, usually the latter.

Rush Valley saw tons of foot traffic in its average day, what with almost every resident having an automail attachment of some kind – limbs, organs, even bones – everyone and their brother came to this town for automail or moved there to make it big in the mechanic field. Only problem was, people like her who couldn't afford their metal replacements were left on the unlucky side of the coin, or to put it simply, homeless.

Another empty can clattered on the cobblestone as she rummaged through a metal garbage pail for something to eat; so far she'd found half a loaf of stale bread and a can of _expired_ beans, but she'd learned that the word expired doesn't exist when you're living like a raccoon. Giving the pail a kick she picked up her bread and beans and shoved them into the pockets of her cargo pants, picking a lint clot off of her moldy yellow sweater before strolling back to the main road. Taking the most crowded roads were tedious, but were the quickest way back to her cot in the alley behind Garfiel's. The flamboyant giant that was the best mechanic in town didn't look up as she passed him; too busy working if she had to guess, and climbed the rusty stairs on the side of his shop up to the roof. At the top was a collection of everything she owned. An old awning cover Garfiel had thrown out, put together with some mosquito netting to make a makeshift canopy over her cot, along with a pile of food and clothing beside it.

She ripped into the bread she found with her teeth, wolfing it down in a few bites and dropping the can of beans onto her cot for dinner later. Seeing that everything was exactly how she'd left it, she slid down the railing of the stairs and jumped the last two steps, kicking up dust as she did so. _Time to go to work_ , she mused, wondering who she could pawn out of some cenz today. Maybe if she was lucky enough she'd get enough to buy food for…

" _Mrrow!"_ an adorable voice purred from below her legs. A dusty brown tabby-cat rubbed against her ankles, climbing up her pant leg before resting across her shoulders, pushing its head against the underside of her chin.

"Hey, Pepper, you behaving?" she asked the animal as she scratched it behind its ears, earning happy purrs in return. Pepper had been her faithful pet since she was little, he fared better than her in the meals department, what with all the mice that tried to get into the automail shops, he never went hungry. She lifted the fat cat off her shoulders, dropping him back on the ground before continuing on her way.

"Oh _Beryl!_ " a male yet feminine voice sang, sending a jolt up her spine, the kind you get as a kid when you've been caught doing something you shouldn't be. She smiled nervously at Garfiel, who was looking at her with his normal sparkly expression, only this time it was laced with knowing mirth.

"Yeah… Mr. Garfiel?" she replied, her words slightly slurred from lack of maintenance on her hearing aids, scratching the back of her head and finding a knot in her dust-brown hair. Pepper didn't follow her cautious nature, jumping up onto Garfiel's work-table without fear and purring as he settled down.

For a mechanic he was always weirdly clean, running a hand through his glossy black curls and giving her a wink. "I hope you're not getting into any trouble; boys don't make passes at girls who rob them blind." His cheeky smile combined with his teasing words put an itch on the back of Beryl's neck, and she scratched at it vigorously while avoiding eye contact.

"Trouble? I don't get into trouble… you're only in trouble if you get caught!" she hadn't meant to word it like that, but when she was nervous words always seemed to tumble out of her mouth like vomit.

Garfiel giggled coyly. "Oh I do wish you'd let me fix your hearing aids, too long without maintenance will hurt your ears, my dear." He waved a hand dismissively, knowing Beryl didn't like accepting free tune-ups, a nick she'd had since she started hiding out on his roof. He already let her get away with trespassing, and she didn't want to burden him further by using up his resources without pay. "Anyway, how have you been? Any cute boys in your life? Anyone you _like_?" he teased, the young girl's cheeks blooming pink as she scratched her cheek.

Garfiel burst into a fit of giggles before she could confirm or deny his question, and Beryl let out a sigh. She adjusted the dial on her left ear, hearing the telltale ring that came whenever she messed with her automail dissipate until it was ignorable. The large man reached into his cash register and slid her a wad of cenz bills across the table. "My last customer left a deliciously generous tip, so buy yourself something pretty, I insist!" his last words cut off any objections she would have had about accepting his generosity. "You can pay me back by accepting a tune up from the next person who offers, no take-backs young lady!"

Beryl laughed, pocketing the money and showing her teeth as she smiled at Garfiel. "Okay, thanks Mr. Garfiel! Come on Pepper," the cat stretched out on the work table before jumping down and following her as she jogged away from the shop.

She pulled up one of the sleeves on her sweater, not noticing the other sleeve falling down her shoulder and showing a strap of her grey tank; the most consistent part of her wardrobe besides her muddy hiking boots. Pepper trotted along beside her as she counted the bills Garfiel had given her, coming to about 1,000 cenz. She grinned at the paper slips; this was enough to buy bread that wasn't stale and beans that weren't expired, maybe even some fruit and meat if she spent it responsibly.

Letting her thoughts wander to things besides food, Beryl thought back to the mechanic's interrogation about whether or not she _liked_ anybody. She was getting to that age after all, when girls who assumedly weren't homeless starting thinking about boys.

"Hm…" she mused out loud. "Someone I like huh?" she did genuinely think about it, but besides Garfiel and Pepper, Beryl didn't really talk to _anyone_ let alone boys her age. "No, I don't think there is anybody…"

She blamed what happened next on her spacing out in a crowded sidewalk. Something big and metal bumped against her shoulder, and when she turned to apologize she was met with something she rarely got to see. It was a guy, well, it seemed like a guy, only he was in a suit of armor four times her size. Her eyes met glowing red dots inside a massive metal helmet, and for two seconds her mind went blank. Is that what people's eyes look like when in armor?

Beryl wouldn't notice until later that two other people were with the big guy, and while she wasn't looking where she was going, she stepped of Pepper's tail. The cat screeched in alarm, darting out into the street to flee from whatever stepped on him, ignoring everything else including Beryl calling for him, the armored guy forgotten.

Everything seemed to slow down in those moments, as Beryl saw the car that was driving down the road, the car that Pepper clearly wasn't seeing as he ran to the middle of the road. Throwing caution into the wind, and ignoring the odd echoing voice in the armor as it called out for her to wait, Beryl dashed after her cat. She scooped him up into her arms and crouched down in the fetal position once she realized she wasn't fast enough to avoid the car.

It was going to hit her.

Two seconds passed, a deafening crash of metal on metal reverberated in her hearing aids, bringing back that unavoidable ringing. Five seconds went by, and Beryl found herself questioning why she wasn't hurt, choosing to slowly open her eyes to see what had happened. Pepper wiggled free of her tight hold, but she hardly noticed amidst the scattered piece of the car around her and the armored guy who had stopped the car in the middle of the street, putting a deep and ugly imprint in the car.

People on the sidewalk were staring, and anther few seconds passed before she realized the vibrating white noise in her ears was actually the big guy trying to speak to her. She turned up the dials on her automail and stared at him, "W-what?" she asked.

A large metal hand extended towards her, "I said, are you alright?" the echo in his voice was nothing compared to how _young_ he sounded, not nearly old enough to be big enough to fit in a suit of armor that big.

A significantly smaller boy with a blond braid cut her off before she could answer, "What in the hell is wrong with you?!" he shouted, flailing his arms and getting in her face. Beryl leaned back slightly, creeped out by how much anger could be packed into such a small guy. "You trying to get yourself killed running into the street like that?!"

" _My Car!"_ another man cried, causing the two guys and Beryl to cringe slightly. That's right, that armored dude destroyed some guy's car in keeping it from squashing her…

The boy with the braid was now attempting to calm the car-owner down by offering to fix any damage, he did so by clapping his hands together and touching the front bumper of the car in a flash of bright blue light. Beryl had to blink a few times to figure out he'd fixed the car using alchemy, a common practice, but one she'd never bothered to learn.

Pushing herself to her feet, she brushed the dust off of her already dirty pants and simply walked away from the boy who'd saved her life. The loud one seemed to have qualms about this, shouting at her about so and so. "Hey! Don't walk away from me! We're not done here!"

"Wait! Are you sure you're not hurt?" the armored one called, sounding more concerned than his companion.

Beryl sighed and gave them a thumbs-up, "Don't worry about it, no harm done." She was almost rid of the weirdos when someone else grabbed her arm, firmly but not painfully.

A girl not much older than herself beamed at her with sparkling blue eyes, "I'm sorry, please don't think this is too forward but… _can I please look at your automail?!"_ the girl pleaded, expression glowing with awe and curiosity.

So she's a mechanic too?

Almost everyone in town knew something or other about automail, and only the mechanics and engineers got this excited about it, _meh, what's the harm?_

"Uh, sure?"

The girl squealed excitedly, finding a couple stools seemingly out of nowhere and sitting Beryl down in one of them while she, in a scarily literal sense, picked her brain.

The blond boy interrupted once more, "Winry, we don't have time to make googly eyes at every rust bucket we pass! We need to find Paninya, _Remember?!_ " _Rust bucket?_

However, the name Paninya sounded familiar, the poor sucker must have gotten his pockets cleaned when he wasn't looking; another unlucky addition to Rush Valley's normal hospitality. The blond girl, Winry, made a face. "Then go on without me, you don't need me to help look for your certification watch, you know what it looks like."

"I have half a mind to just leave you here! See how much you like this dump after that!" the boy pouted, his scowl deepening.

The guy in the armor scrambled to try and calm the little psycho down. "Brother! That's not polite!"

From what Beryl had gathered in the chaos that was playing out in front of her, the angry one and the armored guy were brothers, and the angry one got his watch stolen by Paninya. The Winry girl had said it was a certification watch, and Beryl had seen him use alchemy, he was young, possibly her age, but the signs pointed to him being a state alchemist. The girl looked like she knew a thing or two about automail given how giddily she was playing with her hearing aids, and they obviously weren't from around town.

Beryl's lips twitched upwards; maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

"Paninya stole your watch, huh?" she spoke up, interrupting the arguing between brothers.

The angry one pouted, "Yeah, my pocket watch, I can't do much without it and we lost her in the crowd earlier."

Beryl crossed her arms behind her head, "I'm not surprised, these people get excited about new automail, and out-of-townies like you practically have a red sign on your foreheads," she snickered, earning a scowl in return.

The other two of the trio did not share in his irritation, rather, Winry leaned forward curiously, "I take it you know about Paninya? Do you think you could show us where she lives? We can't really get around without Ed's watch," she smiled kindly, gesturing to the angry one, Ed, at least now he had a name.

In truth, Beryl didn't know squat about anyone in town other than herself and Garfiel, but if Ed the alchemist and his band of weirdos had any sort of sized wallet to show for it, and she played her cards right, she could get a lot more than bread for her next meal.

"Yeah, I know her, I can show you where she's currently squatting if you like." She watched their expressions light up. "But you have to do something for me first." Their faces deflated, and Beryl pointed to her ears. "My automail hasn't seen the best of days lately, if one were to be nice enough to repair them, then I'd be super grateful."

The blond girl practically exploded with glee, and Beryl gave the brothers a wink and a thumbs-up. "Throw in a meal for the road and we have a deal, whadya say?"

Ed responded by getting in her face with a mad glare, "Listen, you dusty street rat..." He began, steam practically blowing from his nose like a pissed off bull.

" _Brother!_ "

Winry's demeanor changed from a child in a sweets' shop to the devil as she hit the alchemist with a deadly punch to the head. "Don't be so rude Ed! It's only fair, besides... _I just have to take another look at that automail!_ " She dissolved into a flurry of questions about her hearing aids, like who made them and how had they combined the mechanical parts to her nerves without the use of surgery, even if to Beryl it all sounded like gibberish.

The armored guy made what sounded like an exasperated sigh, while Angry-Ed was taking deep breaths and trying not to wring Beryl's neck. He probably would have if Winry didn't look so happy over bits of metal in the girl's ears.

He groaned loudly. "Fine! Show us where Paninya lives and we'll buy you food... _street rat."_ He muttered that last bit under his breath.

" _Nope_! Food first, then Paninya."

That scowl reappeared on his face, and his gloved hand formed a tight fist, but Beryl was undeterred. " _Fine..."_ He extended his hand and gripped hers tighter than what was considered polite, and she winced slightly from how strong he was. Nonetheless they shook on it and their deal was set in stone.

* * *

Despite not feeling as hungry as she usually was, Beryl had torn into the food presented to her like a ravenous wolf. The angry alchemist had gone all out, buying much more food than what was considered a standard meal; he must've been pretty popular to have such money at his disposal and not even bat an eye. Chicken bones and plates of bread and fruit were being cleaned faster than the waitress could bring them, she ripped another hunk of meat from its leg as she noticed the trio staring at her with a mix of annoyance and curiosity.

"Want some?" she asked through mouthful of food.

Ed sucked his teeth, "No thanks… when was the last you ate anything?" he seemed genuinely considerate for a moment, before going back to his scowling.

Beryl swallowed, using the sleeve of her sweater to wipe the juices of the chicken and fruit from her face. "So how's a state alchemist lose track of his watch anyway?" she asked, dodging the boy's question and choosing instead to sate her own need for answers.

" _Don't dodge the question!_ " he barked, shaking his fists. The armored boy ignored Ed's empty bickering, cocking his head – or – _helmet_ , why was he wearing a whole suit of armor in the middle of the day anyway? A question for later.

His weird red eyes looked at her, "How did you know he was a state alchemist?"

Beryl used her fingers to pull a bit of meat off the bone, leaning down to drop it on the floor for Pepper as she'd been doing since the first course came. "I saw him fix that guy's car with alchemy, and state alchemists carry around a pocket watch for identification right? I kinda figured," she explained as she popped a fat red grape into her mouth, almost purring as she felt the skin break and spill vibrant juice across her tongue.

"Oh yeah…" the Winry girl muttered, "We never got your name!"

She twirled her one dust brown braid around her finger, pushing away the plate of fruit stems and bare bones, full and satisfied, Beryl figured a name didn't do much harm.

"Beryl Desiree, a pleasure," she flashed a smile and a wink, to the amusement of Winry and the armored guy and opposite to mister state alchemist.

The shorter one crossed his arms across his chest, not making any move to return the polite favor until Winry roughly elbowed him in the rib, he sneered before jabbing a thumb to his chest. Beryl vaguely remembered feeling a metal pinch on her hand when she shook his, making her wonder just why he was visiting Rush Valley in the first place.

"My name is Edward Elric, and I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist."

* * *

 **This, is an experiment, I bingewatched this entire series in the span of two days, and then came the fanfictions and the art and just UHHHHHHH I can't. I read a story called Insomniacs, perhaps you've heard of it, and I was inspired! This will be Al x OC, but it won't be as prominent as it was in Insomniacs, nothing against that story its just my preference. Al and Beryl are both 14 after all, so waaaaaay down the line there'll be some fluff and drama but not much else. And yes, Beryl is deaf. So when I develop her more and get a plan straight, i'll keep this going. I hope you like it, chao!**


	2. I'd Give an Arm and a Leg

**Chapter 2: I'd Give and Arm and a Leg to See You**

"The what?"

He visibly deflated, looking dumbfounded while Beryl picked a leaf from her hair and tossed it away. The blond boy, Edward, clenched a fist in front of her. "You seriously don't get out much do you?!"

The kid in the armor spoke up, "It's rare we meet anyone who doesn't know who brother is,"

She crossed her arms behind her head, leaning back in her chair to the point where she nearly fell over, but Winry, who was sitting next to her, managed to catch the back of her chair before that happened. Beryl gave her a smile that showed her teeth before turning back to the boys. "I don't read too much, are you famous or something?"

 _She didn't read at all for that matter,_ she thought, but they didn't need to know that so she kept it to herself. Edward blinked a few times before crossing his arms across his chest. "Don't worry about it, now that you've stuffed your face… are you going to show us to Paninya?"

"Guess I will, come on _Fullmetal Alchemist_ ," she snickered, pushing herself out of her chair and not waiting for them to follow her as she started walking through town. He started spouting angry jargon again but she hardly heard him, falling into step besides the big guy since he seemed like the only one with his head screwed on straight. Pun intended. "You wear heavy armor in the street often?" she asked him, earning a look of what she could only assume was questioning.

She lightly tapped a finger against her chest, indicating what she was referring to. "Oh!" he realized, nodding with a creak in his armor. "Yeah… it's a hobby of mine…" he didn't sound so sure, but Beryl just shrugged.

"That's kinda weird," she teased, winking her one blue eye and arching an eyebrow above her brown one.

"Says the hobo who jumps in front of cars for cats," Edward added, wincing as he felt Pepper's claws dig into his back until the tabby came to rest across his shoulders. "Stupid cat…" he grumbled.

Beryl scoffed and rolled her mixed-matched eyes, barely keeping track of where she was going; she had heard a few vague rumors that Paninya lived up in the mountains, but that place was a labyrinth at best. Even people like her who'd grown up around those mountains for years could easily get lost, but it also sounded like the perfect place to ditch the alchemists without too much pain. She felt kind of bad for tricking them, but she had a feeling she'd feel worse if she hadn't used them for food. Girl's got to eat after all.

She made a loose fist and tapped it against the big guy's chest plate, cocking her head at the slight echo it had made. "So, I've met Edward and Winry, what about you Big Guy?" the guy started stuttering incoherently, startled by her so informally touching him.

"Oh," he mumbled, scratching the back of his helmet with his glove, an odd gesture Beryl made a mental note of. The amount of questions these people racked up was growing and she hadn't even known them for more than an hour. "I'm his younger brother, Alphonse Elric."

Beryl blinked a few times, making sure she'd heard him right. "You're… younger?" looking between the two of them with that new information in mind was like looking at a circus mirror, the ones that made you look comically skinny or large. She shook her head, "How old _are_ you kid?"

Even if she really wasn't one to talk, being freshly fourteen after all, one of their parents must've been a _giant_ to give someone a growth spurt like that. "I'm fourteen!" he said proudly, sounding so excited that she couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"Does the growth spurt skip a generation in your family or something?"

A pin dropping could've been heard in the moments that followed, and Alphonse scrambled to try and convince her to reword her statement, but the damage had been done. Faster than she could track, Edward barreled into the brunette tackling her to the floor, pulling on her hair and hitting her repeatedly on the head like a maniac. " _WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?! Are you trying to say I'm a runt?! Huh?!"_

He talked a mile a minute while Beryl squirmed and wrestled to try and get away, "For a shortcake you sure are heavy!" she yelled, poking a rampaging bear at this point.

 _"DON'T CALL ME SHORTCAKE!"_

"Get off! You're crushing me!"

Winry and Alphonse let out a collective sigh, used to the blond alchemist's height complex but pitying Beryl for being his latest victim in that regard. Five minutes had passed before the pair pulled Edward off of her, them settling their argument with a begrudging apology before moving on. Pepper had moved to sit on Alphonse's shoulders, as seen his brother was more volatile and jostled the cat uncomfortably. Beryl pouted slightly, _traitor,_ she thought, giving her pet a nasty look.

They had left town behind a while ago, the buildings fading into rocky outcrops and the seemingly endless stretch of mountains. She didn't get around much, and she even more rarely made small talk with anyone else in town besides Garfiel, but the last she'd heard was that Paninya shacked up in these mountains with some old guy named Dominic. Not that she knew where exactly that was, but it was better than making it up off the top of her head; she was terrible at improve.

She fidgeted by turning the dial on her aids back and forth, controlling how much and how intensely she could hear. If it was up all the way she could hear as far as two miles away, but the backlash was hard on her ears as well as her brain, and turned all the way down was the equivalent of her being completely devoid of hearing, which was not something she enjoyed. Maybe letting Winry update her aids wasn't such a bad idea, it beat letting them fizzle out and going back to being deaf, that was for sure.

"So where exactly does Paninya live, and why out here?" Edward asked her, having that tone that asks whether or not Beryl had taken them out of town to murder them and/or steal what remained of their wallets.

Beryl didn't hide her lie, what would be the point, it wasn't as if they could take what she had. She barely had the clothes on her back, and a cat who was fed far better than she was.

She shrugged, "I don't know."

 _"WHAT?!"_

Edward looked like he was about to pounce on her again, with the intention of leaving marks this time. She twirled the small brown braid hanging from her ratty bob around her finger, "Last time I was up here I got lost and didn't really notice anyone living up here." She gave the trio an apologetic yet teasing smile, "Sorry, but thanks for the meal anyway!"

Making a move to leave was the wrong choice, as a gloved hand gripped her arm painfully tight. " _Where do you think you're going?"_ Beryl swallowed the snide comment on her tongue, seeing the vein popping on Edward's forehead and the blazing fury in his golden eyes.

A bead of sweat ran down her face as she tried to think of a reasonable excuse, but something else turned out to be her saving grace.

"Brother, look!" Alphonse directed their attention to a nearly invisible path nestled above them. If you didn't know it was there you'd probably never be able to see it, and someone took advantage of this, as they ran down the path deeper into the mountains. They weren't getting very far, as Beryl noticed something small and shiny grasped in their hand. _Crap._

Edward fixed her with a fierce glare, "I'll deal with you later," without anything more he took off after the thief that stole his watch. "Winry, watch the street rat! Come on Al!"

The pair ran after Paninya, and Beryl would've made a run for it if not for the mechanic's freakishly strong grip on her wrist. Winry pulled her after the boys, and wasn't the happiest with her either. "That was a pretty rotten thing to do, especially after we helped you."

Beryl scoffed, "What are you, _my mother_?"

The blond didn't say anything more, but the anger and disappointment on her face said a lot more than her words did. Beryl felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach, yeah, it might've been wrong to trick them… but what skin was it off a state alchemist's back to buy one lousy meal anyway? It wasn't like she'd robbed him blind like Paninya apparently had, so why was she getting roped into some strangers' problems? Guess she only had herself to blame for that one…

" _HA, HA, HA! I'VE GOT YOU NOW!"_

Winry put her arm out to stop Beryl from falling off the newly formed cliff; she almost choked on her own tongue as she watched the Shortcake use the canyon stone to create a quick path directly in Paninya's way. The pickpocket evaded his attacks but was stopped short by an enormous wall emerging from the ground and blocking any escape she had. Beryl knew alchemy was powerful but this was something else entirely.

"How the hell did he do that?" she asked aloud, her amazement outweighing her grudge against the trio.

Blue eyes sparked with amusement, as if she was used to this reaction from people. "He's an alchemist."

Blue webs of electricity fizzled and popped up from the ground, and multiple stone hands sprung from the earth, making grabs for the shifty pickpocket. She was too meticulous in her movements, however, and moved with enough fluidity to dodge every one of Edward's strikes. Beryl would've admired her stamina if she wasn't smiling and laughing while a guy was controlling the ground with every intent to _crush her._

 _Was everyone in town going nuts today?_

 _"Quit moving around!"_ Edward hissed.

Paninya only laughed. "What's the matter? Can't catch a little girl?"

She easily maneuvered herself past his wall, but ran right towards where Alphonse was waiting with his own strategy. "I've been waiting for you."

Pepper jumped off his shoulders and ran into Beryl's arms, sensing the change in the electromagnetic energy around the armored boy. The alchemic circle he'd drawn in the dirt glowed a bright blue, the dirt surrounding Paninya hardening and stretching upwards into bars until it had formed a stone cage around her.

Beryl knew quite literally _nothing_ about alchemy, but even she had to admit it was an impressive display. "Whoa…" she gaped, letting Pepper down when he started wiggling. "That was _awesome!"_ she pumped her fist in the air, her pride forgotten as her brown and blue gaze sparkled excitedly.

Al scratched the back of his helmet, avoiding eye contact as though he were blushing under that armor. Maybe that's why he wore it; so Shortcake's insanity wouldn't indirectly make his skull pop like a pimple.

Edward smirked as he approached the cage, "Now, why don't you hand it over, my watch…"

The words hadn't even completely left his mouth when Paninya threw her leg against the stone bars, her pants tearing as a blade emerged from her shin and sliced the bars to bits. The brothers jumped back, leaning into a more defensive stance now that they knew Paninya was heavily armed.

She held up her leg, the metal of the blade attached to her automail catching the sun, making Beryl especially envious. Why couldn't hearing aids have blades in them?! "Come on, you can't be too surprised!" she smiled teasingly. "You've _seen_ the town, haven't you?"

Paninya lifted up her opposite leg, pointing her kneecap towards the pair. Beryl barely registered what the dark skinned girl said before her knee exploded, almost taking their heads off. She winced, pressing her palms against her ears as the ringing returned with a vengeance. It got especially bad when she got too close to loud noises, or in this case, girls with 1.5-inch canons in their knees.

Winry asking if she was okay sounded muffled, like she was underwater, and the ringing wasn't subsiding. She only blinked at the blond mechanic, pointing to her left ear and gritting her teeth to show how much pain she was in. She did not talk much when her automail was on the fritz; her speech became slurred as it was when one was deaf, and people rarely took her seriously during such episodes.

She didn't even notice when Winry left her side and grabbed onto the escaping pickpocket with her freakish strength. "Well now, how do you like that?" Beryl vigorously shook her head back and forth, clearing away the ringing and adjusting the dials on her aids, already noticing her hearing returning to normal. "That wasn't so hard." Winry smiled smugly.

Edward praised her while Beryl banged her hand against her head for the second time that day, sighing when she finally regained her ability to hear. She turned the dial back down to fifty percent and joined the other girl in guarding Paninya. The mechanic squeezed the pickpocket's hand with determination, "No way I'm letting her go," her eyes started sparkling in that dreamy expression again, looking at Paninya like she was a gift from the heavens. "Not until I've had a closer look at that automail…"

The brothers promptly collapsed, and Beryl had not moved from kneeling on the ground, propping her hands on her legs with a huff. "Is she always like that?" she asked no one in particular.

 _"Unfortunately…"_ the pair sighed in unison.

Pepper meowed, climbing on top of Alphonse again and rubbing his head against the boy's shoulder piece. Blowing her bangs out of her face, Beryl got up and attempted to make another break for it, but Edward beat her to it. He grabbed the scruff of her sweater, holding her up like a stray cat with that furious demon face of his.

"Not so fast!" he growled. "No one's going anywhere until we've all had a nice long chat about _theft_ , you're lucky I don't take your hand off!"

Beryl couldn't help herself, she snickered. "Like you could even reach it, Shortcake."

She probably should have seen it coming, but that didn't stop her childish cry of pain when Edward's fist connected to the back of her head. She'd never been one to quit while ahead anyway. The so called _Fullmetal what's-his-face_ started dragging her by the scruff behind the group as Paninya lead them deeper into the mountains.

"Hey! This is kidnapping you know!" she wriggled and tried to get free but she doubted his metal grip was easily shakable, so she settled for crossing her arms and pouting. Alphonse trailed behind his brother, probably to make sure Beryl did not escape. He laughed nervously when she fixed him with a blue and brown scowl. "What's your deal?" she poked.

Pepper was purring on top of his head, creating a light rumble in his armor, and making that weird echoing sound again. "Sorry," he apologized. "Brother's not really the best with people, but once you pay him back I'm sure he'll let go of your sweater!"

He sounded so optimistic it was enough to bring tears, and that is exactly what Beryl did. She smashed her palms into her eye sockets and wailed.

 _"This sucks!"_

* * *

 **Don't steal from Edward Elric kids. And if you like this story, go ahead and click on the ole fav button for me. Please, this is all I have. Anywho… Ciao for now! -D &B**


	3. May our Fates Forever Intertwine

**Chapter 3: May Our Fates Forever Intertwine**

Beryl took back everything she said, Winry was an _angel_ sent from heaven given the way she attacked her hearing aids with a screwdriver and a variety of different sized wrenches. She really had to give the girl a bang for her buck; not many mechanics were skilled or patient enough to work on something as delicate as automail designed for the inner ears. Beryl was lucky she'd found mechanics to do the procedures _at all_ , but regular engineers to keep it up to date with her changing body were a bit harder to keep track of.

Winry, however, squealed like a child on Christmas morning, getting that sparkling look in her eye before she picked up her surgical tweezers and stuck them in Beryl's right ear. She had to detach the nerve end wires, including her metal cochlea, and meticulously remove each piece before even beginning to clean and fix what was broken. It was a process so boring and drawn out that it nearly made Beryl say _to hell with it_ and settle for being deaf as a doorbell.

Her right ear went completely dark, and she appreciated Winry doing one at a time for the sake of carrying on a conversation if need be. She _really_ liked being able to hear just like everyone else. "The eardrum is almost completely rusted through… you're lucky you found us when you did, this getting infected wouldn't end up well for you." The blond explained while carefully removing a screw.

Beryl laughed, "So would you say I have _a screw loose?_ "

Paninya booed from where she sat on a crate, probably full of mechanical parts, and Beryl stuck her tongue out in retaliation.

Before she knew it, Winry had finished cleaning and reinstalling the parts of her right ear, and did the same with the left, at an impossibly fast rate. "All done!" she chirped, holding up a mirror to more closely view her handiwork.

"Wow, you work fast!" she remembered the initial surgery taking hours even without anesthetic, and not only was her hearing better, but the ringing had completely vanished. "You're a life-saver!"

The girl swooned, "I couldn't help it, the intricacies of your automail are some I've never seen before! You have to tell me who designed them!" she begged, rubbing her face against Beryl's cheek like Pepper did when he wanted attention.

"Some guy in Dublith."

And that was all she was going to say about it, but Winry didn't look the least bit depressed. The moment she looked back, the girl had completely forgotten about her and was already gushing over Paninya's legs. She kept babbling about the craftsmanship, how amazing it was, making Beryl wish she was back in the alley with her trashcans. At least _they_ didn't pull her around by the scruff of her good sweater…

But then again, they also didn't give out free tune-ups…

"The work you've done is magnificent! You're a wonderful engineer!" the blond beamed to the rather withdrawn man leaning against the wall, just quietly observing everything. He seemed to register that Winry was speaking to him, and nervously corrected her.

"Oh no, don't look at me miss, I wasn't the one who made them…"

" _I am."_

Beryl felt a chill down her spine at the sheer _weight_ to that voice, standing in the doorway was by the far the most intimidating face she'd ever seen. A deep scowl was imprinted on his face, and it looked permanent. He looked like he got pissed off at puppies playing in his yard, even more so at four strangers sitting in his workshop. He fixed Edward with an unimpressed look, and Beryl felt a twinge of pity for the poor sucker caught in this guy's line of sight.

Despite the look in his eye, the man still picked up a small metal hammer from his workbench and sat down in front of Edward, who promptly began removing his clothes.

Beryl jumped, leaning away towards Alphonse, "Hey, what's he strippin' for!?"

Al put his hand on her shoulder to steady her, "Brother has an automail arm, a leg too, but often he needs to get it repaired." He explained, his echoing voice still triggering both confusion and curiosity in the brown-haired girl.

"What about you?" she asked, standing up straight. "Does your automail need fixing too?" she tapped her knuckles against his chest plate, arching an eyebrow when the metal rang like a bell. It almost sounded like he was… _hollow?_ She gave him a skeptic look, and the boy's only response was to scratch the back of his helmet again, which was far from the weirdest thing she'd seen today, but why scratch the helmet? You wouldn't be able to feel anything by doing that, just what was _wrong_ with these people?

Alphonse scrambled for a reply, "Um, well… actually…"

" _HEY, SHUT UP!"_

The pair both blinked at Edward's childish outcry, Beryl scowling until she realized that he wasn't talking to her, but to Dominic for an accidental comment about his height. A light bulb then flashed above his head as an epiphany reached his thick head. "Wait, are you saying if my automail was lighter, I'd grow _taller_ than this?"

Dominic rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "It is a possibility…"

Ed dissolved into his own fantasies after that, but he was ignored. "What about Beryl's automail? I hope I adjusted everything properly, I've never seen anything like it…" Winry yammered on before turning to the grimy younger girl. "Who was your mechanic again?"

She would have given another vague answer if Dominic had not cut her off. "Don't bother, I've seen that before and it's the farthest thing from honest work, automail like that is only done under the table by crooked doctors who only work on criminals and gangbusters." He sneered, giving Beryl an angry look meant to strike fear in her, but she only stuck her tongue out and hummed.

Winry seemed oddly undeterred by this information, and clenched a fist. "Well I'm no criminal, Mr. Dominic I beg you, make me your apprentice!"

" _Not a chance girl."_

The poor girl visibly paled, a beat of silence passing between everyone in the room. Even Beryl had to say his words were pretty harsh, she might not have had the best _business_ style; giving repairs out for free and all, but her skill wasn't half-bad. She hadn't heard this great since she was _nine_ , and Winry had never even touched hearing-related automail before! "Maybe, you'd like more time to consider the idea?" she whimpered.

Dominic crossed his arms and refused to budge. "No need, I don't take on apprentices."

Ed must have had a bigger height-complex than she originally thought, because he actually got down on his _knees_ in front of Dominic and started begging for him to teach the other blond to make automail to make him taller. He really seemed desperate too, so when Dominic immediately shot him down, even going as far as to call him a flea in the process, Beryl couldn't help but giggle at the image in her head. The so-called Fullmetal So-and-So as a flea, a little golden braid and everything, was a picture she'd be holding on to for a good laugh.

Without acknowledging the boy whose dreams he just crushed, the grouchy old man left the room with a slam of the door.

"Well he was a barrel of laughs," she woofed, running her hand through her rat's nest and scratching at what was _not_ an actual flea.

The old-fart's son at least appeared sympathetic, "Sorry about that, my old man can be pretty stubborn." His apology, though genuine, didn't do much to lift Winry's spirits. For no other reason than what the other girl had done for her, Beryl actually felt kind of bad.

* * *

Let the record show, that formulating escape plans are nowhere near as easy as they initially seem. Her current plan of simply bolting out the door and not stopping until the oddball brothers were far from her sight and mind, was slightly obscured by the rainstorm that had swept into the mountains, blocking any chance of finding her way back to town until morning. Although, Beryl had to admit, the sound of the rain against the rocky ground and the stone foundation of the house was soothing, and one of the many sounds she took for granted. Sure, her aids replaced her dead eardrums and inner workings, but automail breaks just like any other part of the body, and sounds like rain were a welcomed reunion she wouldn't be neglecting again.

Now, she was just bored, and looking for _anything_ to distract her from being alone with her thoughts. Leading to where she was now, following the wonder-twins around in hopes they'd provide some entertainment, and they did not disappoint. Edward kept mumbling about Dominic calling him a flea, with a lost and distant look in his eye that made Beryl chuckle. "Can it, Street-Rat." She heard him growl.

"Big words from a little flea." She shot back.

Edward quite literally bounced back to his old self, snarling with that angry face of his. "Those sound like fighting words!"

Beryl narrowed her eyes and made an angry expression of her own, feeling the air around them grow even tenser. "I'll take you on right here!"

They growled, bit, and snarled back and forth until Alphonse stopped them, "Brother! Please control yourself!" he put his large armored hand between them, pulling his brother back for both their safeties. "We're not the only ones here," he whispered, pointing to a woman sitting in the far end of the room, though it seemed she had not noticed them. She only sat there, rubbing her enlarged stomach lovingly.

She was pregnant.

Beryl blinked; she had never seen a pregnant woman up close before. Alphonse shared in her awe of the small life inside the woman's stomach, softly asking her if she was really having a baby. She smiled in that special kind of motherly manner, saying they could touch her tummy if they wanted. The armored boy made a sound of wonder as he reached forward and laid a gentle touch on her stomach. Beryl however, hesitated; what if she messed up? What if she hurt the baby somehow? Babies were so impossibly fragile, what if she broke it? Can you break babies?!

"You can too dear," the mother noticed her skittishness and took the younger girl's hand in her own, laying it against her baby bump. She shivered but didn't pull her hand away; her shyness towards babies contrasting her coarse and hissy behavior was enough to make Al laugh. She shot him a pouty look but didn't say anything else.

Beryl then felt a strong thump from inside the woman's stomach, striking panic in her chest as she visibly flinched away from the expecting mother. "Oh god, something moved!"

Alphonse and the mother only laughed, "That's just the baby kicking, no need to worry." Brown and blue eyes flicked between the woman's kind face and her bump, her face softening as she crossed her hands behind her back, too nervous to touch her stomach again. The presence of babies and young children put her on edge; they were so soft and fragile, meanwhile she was rough and covered in grime. She didn't want to soil them.

"It's like there's a miracle in your stomach," Edward added, staring at her bump as he reached forward to touch it too.

"Yeah, we were in mom's tummy like this once upon a time too…"

His echoing voice trailed off, and Beryl briefly wondered why he sounded so sad.

Those thoughts were quietly interrupted when the woman winced, hissing behind her teeth as if she was in pain. The brothers were quick to react, "Are you okay?" Ed demanded, being as inexperienced with babies and pregnancy as any fifteen-year-old boy should be.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." They all sighed in relief.

* * *

Beryl wandered off while Edward and Al stayed with the woman, who she now knew as Satella. She fiddled with the dial on her aids some more, turning it as low as she could deal with so that they wouldn't feel so heavy. A storm was brewing outside, and a pretty big one if she had to guess. Big thunderstorms always messed with her hearing; she got headaches and became sensitive to almost every little sound, it was also when the ringing was at its worst. Turning them down usually helped, but only so much. The soreness in her ears was still annoying, but it wasn't nearly as achy as before. Winry really had a knack for this stuff.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" Winry's voice came from the other side of the workshop door. Beryl leaned against the wall, she wasn't normally one for eavesdropping but she was so bored that she would listen to anything at this point.

Paninya paused, but continued. "I was in a train accident as a kid, it killed my parents, and I lost both my legs in the wreck."

 _Oh yeah…_ Beryl remembered, she had a brief memory of scavenging alleys years ago and throwing apples at a girl in a wheelchair. Not to be cruel, but she looked half-dead and wouldn't eat anything if it wasn't stuffed into her face. "I couldn't even walk anymore… and I had nowhere to go, it felt like my whole world had come crashing down…"

She picked another lint clot off her sleeve, flicking it away and scurrying for more while she listened. "That's when I met Mr. Dominic and everything changed completely!" she told her story, and Beryl was reminded of her own upbringings, only she didn't have a mean old man with a gentle heart to repair what she had broken.

Ever since she was eight, she'd scavenged and gotten by on her own. She had Pepper and Garfiel, and only ever stole food, it was hardly the good life, but she was content enough with it. Because it was _hers_ , everything she had was hers through her grit and stubborn refusal to take anything lying down.

"And, Beryl? What's her story?" Winry asked, quirking the interest of the girl in question.

Paninya laughed, "Honestly I'm not the one to ask, I don't know if anyone in the whole town could tell you the full story…" she explained, "But, I remember when we were kids, we hung around the same places, and after the wreck when I wouldn't eat… she'd throw apples and chicken bones at me!"

Beryl smiled; at least she remembered the important parts.

"We barely spoke to each other, but she'd been on the streets a lot longer than I had, for a while I thought her name was _Barrel_ , cause she was always digging in the trash."

Despite that awful old nickname, a laugh escaped her lips; thankfully, the two didn't hear it, but Beryl had forgotten about that story. She was glad she remembered it; at least now she could share a laugh with Paninya about how lowly they both were back then.

"Mr. Dominic, I owe him everything…" she was pulled from her thoughts, tuning back in to the conversation she wasn't a part of. "I'm gonna pay him back somehow, even if it takes me my whole life! Of course, he's never willing to take any money from me, so that makes it a bit more difficult…"

Winry was silent, "So, that's why you're a thief." It wasn't a question, and it was the same tone she used when she had reprimanded Beryl earlier for tricking Edward into paying for her meal. "If you're so grateful, you should clean up your act, and stop picking pockets!" she heard Paninya gasp, "Mr. Dominic _gave_ you these legs as a selfless act of good will… so if you really want to pay him back, use that act as an example!"

Beryl crossed her arms and leant against the door, listening closer to the blond girl's words.

"Instead of stealing worthless trinkets from hapless tourists, stand _strong_ on the legs that he made for you! Stand up, and get to work!" the brunette could hear the smile in her voice, and she turned down the dials on her ears, pushing off the wall and wandering off to do something else. She'd heard enough.

 _A selfless act of good will_ , she thought. _Not all of us are so lucky._

She wandered through the house for a while, that is until her face was smacked with a metal chest-plate. Beryl groaned and rubbed her sore forehead, "Ah! I'm sorry!" through her blurry vision, a hand touched her shoulder to steady her.

"Hey Alphonse, what's new?" she asked deliriously, shaking her head to clear away the dizziness. "And what's got you in a hurry?"

The armored boy looked frantic, at least as frantic as an expressionless suit of armor can look, "I'm sorry, Brother told me to find help and I was on my way when I bumped into you, are you hurt? I hope I didn't make you hurt your head…"

"Slow down Big Guy, my head is more durable than that, what's got you so rushed?"

"Well… We… I… The… The bay…"

"Spit it out man!"

Al made a noise like he was taking in a big breath.

" _THE BABY'S COMING!"_

Beryl blinked once, twice, and the house filled up with screaming.

* * *

 **Beryl's dad used to beat her.**

 **At chess! Haha, pranked ya! But yeah tragic backstory and all that, all in good time! I'll try to be as all-inclusive with Brotherhood's narrative as possible while also telling the story mostly through Beryl's point of view. And the Barrel joke came from a friend of mine, and I know Beryl seems a bit lackluster now but don't worry! I'll get to the good stuff in the coming chapters, remember we have a lot of story to go through, meaning there will be lots of growth for her as well. Anyway, hit that fav button, review and stuff, and Ciao until next time!**


	4. I'd Bet my Debt

**Chapter 4: I'd Bet my Debt**

The news of Satella going into labor had everyone in a panic, her husband, who Beryl knew as Ridel, stuck to his wife like glue, helping her onto the bed and scrambling to make sure she wasn't in any pain. Although he was beating a dead horse in that regard. Dominic was the only one who didn't seem to be nervous, calmly grabbing his coat from the rack by the door and preparing a horse from the barn. The storm had gotten so bad that getting Satella to the doctor in town was out of the question, so bringing the doctor to them was their only option.

The woman held her stomach as sweat dripped down her face, she was obviously trying her hardest to keep the baby from coming, but she was failing. Beryl pressed herself against the wall, leaning as far away from the chaos as possible. Childbirth sounded terrifying, even from her point of view as an innocent bystander, she'd never seen it before and had hoped to never witness it in her lifetime. Yeah, it was a miracle and all, but the physical process just sounded gross. Satella winced, another wave of pain rocking her body.

Ridel did his best to comfort her, even if he had no idea what he was doing. "Pop will be right back with the doctor, just try to hang on a little longer, okay?"

She visibly ground her teeth together. "There is no hanging on here, it'll come when it's ready to!" another shot of pain struck her, and she dissolved into a shaking mass of nerves.

"What's the matter hon?"

Beryl turned the dial up on her aids when Satella started muttering incoherently, everyone leaned in for a better angle to hear what she was saying, but it was no use, her voice was too soft.

 _"I SAID IT'S COMING!"_ her voice echoed off the walls, making Beryl grab the sides of her head and heavily regret turning up her sound-intake. Her head throbbed as she turned it back down and tried to make the ringing subside; so much for getting rid of it permanently.

While everyone took part in the ensuing insanity, the brunette took the opportunity that had been given to try and sneak way once more. This had far exceeded what she was mentally capable of handling in one day, and moved to escape through the door. She would have made it too, if Pepper hadn't chosen that specific spot on the floor to randomly appear, she tripped and hit her face on the floor, hissing at her pet for being a filthy traitor and giving away her position.

"Beryl?" Alphonse offered a hand to help her up, but she immediately halted him with a fierce glare, pushing herself up and ignoring the red mark left on her forehead. Her backstabbing cat jumped back into the armored boy's arms, curling up in his giant hands and purring like a car motor. Stupid jerk.

She blew her bangs from her face and groaned, "I'm fine." Crossing her arms and resuming her pouting, Beryl almost missed the small, amused chortle that came from the larger boy's mouthpiece.

 _"We're just going to have to do it!"_

Winry's commanding tone took her slightly by surprise; she'd heard her take on a motherly temper that was borderline nagging, but the pure authority in her voice was the kind that assumed leadership instantly, and demanded to be listened to. "Do what?" Edward stuttered.

"Deliver it."

The split second of silence that followed was broken by the bombardment of terrified screaming, of which Beryl was an avid participant, even her cat screeched in horror at the thought of witnessing the _horror_ that was childbirth. Ridel wiped sweat from his brow, but it didn't do much good, the poor man was sweltering enough to rival the storm outside. "So, you've seen a baby being delivered before?"

The blond mechanic stared at her boots, looking up under her bangs with a determined stare. "No, I haven't, but we don't have any other options." Her baby blues scanned over everyone in the room, "I need everyone's help, but we _are_ going to do this!"

She grabbed an apron off the hook by the door and tied it around her waist, barking orders and placing tasks on everyone around her, fitting into a commanding role like a glove despite not knowing exactly what she was doing. "Beryl, I need you to go get some ice chips, you can put them by Miss Satella's bedside so she doesn't get dehydrated!"

"Got it," she nodded and ran out of the room to the kitchen, prying open the icebox and using her hands to shovel chunks of ice into a bucket. This was just too perfect; she couldn't have asked for a better distraction than a baby being born. She'd leave the ice by the woman's bed and slip out while everyone was too absorbed in the labor process, then she would never have to see these weirdos again.

Setting the bucket of ice within Satella's reach was easy, facing her agonized screams was another level entirely. Driven by her need to stop the noise more than anything else, Beryl moved the woman's sweat-soaked hair from her eyes and placed a chunk of ice at her lips. The soon-to-be mother accepted the ice and crunched it between her teeth, smiling gratefully at the brunette above her. "Thank you," she gasped.

She could only nod in return.

Watching Winry mumble to herself in the corner, Beryl took her chance to leave the room and inch carefully towards the window at the far end of the hall. It would be a fair story drop ad one hell of a walk back to town, but it beat spending another second with this freak show. Pushing the window open, she quickly climbed out and closed it behind her, propping her feet on chipped pane and preventing anyone from hearing the roaring wind. The volume of the storm was building, and she found herself soaked to the bone not a minute of being outside. The rain was freezing and the wind was loud enough to numb her ears, but she grit her teeth and let go of the windowpane.

Dropping from a window with no planned landing strategy had its ups and downs, including landing on her butt with a pained mewl she was not particularly proud of, but nonetheless she had made it outside and was so close to freedom. All she had to do now was make it back to town, while the storm raged on around her. Piece of cake.

Beryl tugged up the collar of her sweater, crossing her arms over her chest to keep some segment of warmth from being flushed out by the icy rain. The water slapped against her face as she started walking, sparking hundreds of tiny pinpricks across her exposed skin and making her wish she owned more than one warm article of clothing. Her belongings on top of Garfiel's shop were no doubt ruined too, but at least she still had the thousand cenz he gave her to maybe buy a blanket.

A vein of lightning wove across the sky, illuminating the path ahead of her for a brief moment, she could see the road that lead to town, but during storms like these the mountain roads tended to get flooded or swallowed by landslides. Ignoring the voice in her head that told her to just wait out the storm, Beryl pushed forward, taking it slow so she wouldn't meet an early grave.

 _"Beryl!"_

 _"Street rat!"_

Despite the numbness spreading from the tip of her nose to the ends of her booted feet, she felt a shiver run up her spine. _You've got to be kidding me!_ Her brain screamed as she turned and saw a red coat and full suit of armor running in her direction. She ground her teeth together in annoyance; just what did it take to _lose_ these freaks?! Rather than face them and whatever they planned to do to her for running off, Beryl took off running deeper into the storm. The rain slapped harder against her face and she had to shield her eyes with her arm just to see two feet in front of her, it didn't help that she was already weighed down by her soaked clothes and those two seemed much more physically fit than her.

"Stop running you idiot!" Edward shouted, but she shut him out and kept running.

The two gave chase, but it was growing increasingly difficult to navigate in the pelting rain, Beryl took a sharp turn down a narrow path with little to no idea where she was going, and the brothers seemed to pick up on that. Alphonse called out to her, "Beryl, come back! It's dangerous out here!"

A clap of thunder exploded through the mountains, and she clutched the sides of her head in pain, the shock of the volume triggering the ringing to return. However, she didn't stop, "No way! You're both crazy, I'm only going back with you over my dead body…"

Her boot plunged into mud and it clung to her with a vice grip, the suddenness of it pulled her to a stop, but the wet rocks plunged her over the edge of a drop-off she'd failed to see.

 _"Al!"_

Edward's voice sounded distant, but the familiar sound of loudly clanking metal rang in steps against the hard ground like a bell. Blue electricity flooded her vision as a slab of solid stone emerged from the side of the mountain, just beneath where Beryl would have definitely fallen to her death. Her back slammed against the newly formed surface and all the air in her lungs left in an instant. Her heart pounded in her chest as the magnitude of what just happened, what _almost_ happened, hit her like a punch in the chest.

Another spider web of light darted across the sky, and she found herself staring at the two figures leaning over the drop-off, they sounded like they were talking to her, but her vision was already darkening.

Beryl exhaled, her ears ringing as raindrops fell onto the metal, and blacked out.

* * *

"I don't believe this… I'm definitely gonna get a cold now… damn street rat… chasing her through the rain like that…" Edward kept grumbling to himself while he wrung the water from his jacket and shook out his braid like a dog. "How's your blood seal? It didn't wash off did it?"

Alphonse sighed, despite his lack of lungs, "I think we'd know if it did, but I think I'm okay." He touched a metal hand to his chest, wanting to check the seal that bound his soul to his armor but wanting to make it through the night first. "And you really should stop calling her that, it's not polite to insult a lady." He chastised, the _lady_ in question still unconscious in his metal arms as he and his older brother sat down in their previous spots next to Satella and Ridel's bedroom door. By the sound of her screams, the birthing process was far from over.

Deciding his jacket dry enough, Edward threw it on over his shoulders. "Yeah well, I'm not the one stupid enough to run off into this hurricane," he growled, feeling claws on his chest as the hobo's stupid cat tried to wiggle out of its prison. When they'd followed her into the storm, the dumb thing wouldn't stop whining so Ed did what any sane man would do and shoved the animal under his shirt, the thing being pretty quiet until now. The brown tabby wormed out from his collar, dropping onto the floor and scratching itself. "Who does that anyway? Takes off when something like this is happening, how selfish can you be?"

Satella screamed from inside the room, making them both wince. "Well, we are strangers… she probably thinks we've kidnapped her, or are planning to at least…" the girl sleeping in his lap twitched her fingers against his metal leg, making a small clacking sound with her fingernail, almost like an echoing bell. Al tapped his own fingers against his leg to have the same affect, anything to distract them from the poor woman's screams.

 _"That sounds nice…"_

A pair of blue and brown eyes sluggishly opened, focusing on the armored boy almost nearly _cradling_ her in his arms. Her pupils shrunk with her sharp intake of breath, as she comprehended what she was seeing. "Um… hi."

Alphonse received a fist to his jaw in response, " _What do you think you're doing?! Put me down you creep!"_ Beryl scratched, thrashed, and kicked at him until he let her down, the girl scurrying across the room and hunching up her back. She _hissed_ with furious eyes, not unlike her feline companion.

The poor boy scrambled for an explanation, waving his arms and shaking his head rapidly, "I-I'm not a creep! I promise!"

"Yeah right, says the pervert who had me in his lap!" she jeered.

If armor could blush, Alphonse swore he'd be red right now. "I swear I'm not a pervert!"

"Who're you calling a pervert, street rat!" Edward joined the mayhem, thinking he was defending his brother when he really was just digging him a deeper hole to crawl into and die.

Beryl growled, "Him, you loud-mouthed tick!"

"What'd you say you freeloading bum!?"

"Spineless worm!"

"Dusty drifting tramp!"

If one were to light a match between the two hotheaded teenagers, it would surely trigger an explosion rivalling the lightning strikes outside. They continued growling at each other, gold locked with brown and blue as neither was backing down, and they probably would have continued their silent battle if the door to Satella's room hadn't open with a creak.

"Brother…" The tension broke instantly; both boys springing into action when Paninya stumbled out of the room, looking sweaty with a haunted look on her face.

Contrasting the way he was a moment ago, Edward seemed at a loss for words. "What happened in there?"

The pickpocket tried to form coherent words as she slowly regained her bearings. "All… all that blood…" she muttered. She dissolved into exhausted mumbles, sounding both horrified and extremely worn down. Beryl lifted her hand to offer some form of comfort, but reconsidered and let it fall to her side.

Winry was collapsed on the floor, her hands pressed to the boards between her dead legs as she gasped for air. Ed rushed to her side, talking softly to her until the girl weakly pointed to the bed. Beryl followed her finger, finding herself rendered completely silent at what she saw.

It was a baby. Bloody, red-faced, and screaming its little head off, but it was a real life baby! By the looks of it, it was a boy, and Ridel and Satella exchanged a look that was happy, loving, and exhausted all at once. He took his newborn son to clean the blood from his sensitive skin, the gentle touches from his father calming the baby as the water ran over his tiny body. She inched towards the scene, against her normal instincts, to get a closer look at the newest addition to the world. He squirmed after a while of being away from his mother, but once he was wrapped in a blanket and handed back to Satella, he quieted a little bit.

Alphonse and Paninya had joined her in fawning over the baby, Satella rocking him softly in her arms and him making adorable infant coos and gurgles in return. Although she was tired and in desperate need of rest, Satella looked at Beryl and smiled kindly with a new sense of motherly tranquility. "Would you like to hold him?"

The poor girl almost choked on her own tongue. "Uh… um… that's okay… I'm sure you wanna hold onto him don't you… haha…" she waved her arms and smiled past her panic, but the woman as already placing the newborn in her arms. "No… wait, what if I…"

"You won't drop him; just support his head like that…" Beryl did as instructed, holding the small boy as he wiggled his arms at her. "There, see, nothing to it." Satella caressed her son's head, the boy warbling happily at his mother's touch, and Beryl couldn't fight the smile that formed on her lips.

"He's like a little person!" she realized, Paninya laughing at her simplicity. She handed the baby back to his mother, the little boy instantly happier in Satella's arms.

Ridel looked at the tomboy, "Paninya, could you go get Winry, just to make sure everything is alright?" he asked, taking the moment to look away from his family before being absorbed in them once more.

"Sure," she gave him a salute before disappearing out the door.

The baby squirmed and cried some more, but no one could bring themselves to stop smiling, even Pepper jumped up on the bed and curled himself around Satella's feet, the new mother chuckling as his purring warmed her toes.

Beryl heard Alphonse sigh beside her, "It really is amazing," he commented.

"Oh yeah? How do you figure?" as little as she'd seen babies being born, she understood it was a fairly common occurrence in a person's lifetime, it was called the miracle of birth, yet it happened all the time. It was beautiful, yet not exactly a rarity.

He tapped his index fingers together, "Alchemists have tried to create human life for centuries, yet in all our science, all our knowledge, this is still the only known way to do it; to carry and give birth to a baby. It's so simple, but it's also one of life's miracles."

Beryl thought about his words, not knowing anything about alchemy but still finding meaning in them.

" _OW! Why'd you go and do that?!"_

And so the brief instance of calm was by Fullmetal Whatever.

 _"Quit whining you dirty pickpocket! Give me my watch back right now!"_

Beryl's eyebrow twitched, "Do you have to yell? There's still a kid in here ya'know?!"

Edward's metal arm reached through the doorway and grabbed her wrist, pinching her skin painfully as he yanked her out of the room. She stumbled a bit but regained her balance well enough to fix him with a glare of her own, however his eye were alight with fury, enough to make her flinch. " _You think I'm done with you?!"_ he shouted. "You still owe me for the food, not to mention saving your sorry ass _twice_ today! So pay up!"

"No way! I got you to Paninya like I promised; you can't back out on me now!"

"The hell I can't!" he grabbed her braid and yanked it, pulling her to look him in the eye, both growling like wild animals at each other. "If you want to get out of this you can either pay up now or be Al and I's slave until you do! It's called a life-debt, until you pay me back or save my life you're stuck with us, got it Street-Rat!?"

Beryl shoved him away, her own mix-matched eye narrowing like a cornered alley cat. "I don't need you to do me any favors!"

Edward smirked, making a fist with his automail hand.

"Think of it more as indentured servitude."

She swore part of her soul just died.

* * *

The train whistle sounded, and though Pepper was still purring on Alphonse's shoulders, Beryl kicked and struggled as Edward dragged her by the scruff of her sweater. The brothers ignored her spitting and cursing at them, much to her growing displeasure. "Hurry up Al, if we miss this train there's not another one for _three days!"_

There was no way a guy only _one_ year older than her could be this strong! "You can't do this to me! Let go!" she hissed.

"Quit whining!" Ed barked as his brother jumped onto the caboose of the train, he tossed his bag to him before jumping on himself, Beryl scrambling and clinging to the railing once his feet touched the car.

"You three be careful!" Winry called out.

 _"You're really not gonna help me?!"_

"Sorry Beryl, but you do need to learn your lesson!"

The brunette groaned as loud as she could muster, dropping onto the floor and leaning her forehead against the rail as the train pulled further and further away from home. Pepper jumped from Al's shoulder, rubbing his head against her leg and making her feel a little better. The armored boy looked down at her, his red eyes narrowing downward as if he was smiling inside his helmet.

Rather than return his kindness, she only huffed and stared at the retreating shapes of Rush Valley.

 _This is gonna be awful…_

* * *

 ** _I Can't say I didn't procrastinate on this one... because I did. And sorry I keep changing the name of Beryl's cat, I think Pepper is gonna be permanent this time! And I also changed her last name from Emerson to Desiree. Anyway, fav, follow, and comment all you want! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!_**


	5. Humble Pie with a side of Crow

**Chapter 5: Humble Pie with a Side of Crow**

 _"Mommy! Daddy!"_

* * *

 _I wonder if a jump from a high-speed train is enough to kill me…_ Beryl grimly thought as the train sped closer and closer to Dublith station. She had amused herself with staring out the window and avoiding eye contact with her pseudo kidnappers. Honestly if they wanted her to pay them back for lunch she could have easily gotten out of this situation, but when she offered her thousand cenz, Edward just pocketed the cash and bonked her on the head. It took both Alphonse, the ticket inspector, _and_ the conductor to keep them from killing each other.

Eventually she gave up, settling for crossing her arms in her seat and pouting. At one point she must have dozed off, because she woke up to cold metal against her cheek and Al's echoing voice. She could feel it vibrating slightly from his armor this time, pulling away from his arm and wiping what could only be drool from her mouth.

"We're nearing the station," he commented, not seeming to mind saliva on his armor, or maybe he just couldn't feel it. She pulled her sleeve past her wrist and cleaned up the spot on his arm, adding her own spit to the list of stains acquainted with her favorite yellow sweater.

"'Kay…" she yawned, stretching her arms above her head and humming when she felt a series of pops and clicks. Pepper did the same in Al's lap, curling up once more and purring in his sleep. "So… do I get the honor of knowing why you guys are visiting Dublith, or do I have to pay for that too?"

Edward scoffed, and Beryl noticed he was sweating, "You know a little courtesy goes a long way,"

"He said, to the fourteen-year-old he kidnapped."

Alphonse spoke before his brother could explode and another fight between the two could break out. "We're visiting our old teacher; she taught us everything we know about alchemy."

The brunette gave the armored boy a cynical look. "You sure do talk about alchemy a lot,"

He chuckled, a ringing sound that reminded Beryl of a tuning fork. "Well, we are alchemists, and Teacher is the best one we've ever met." He sounded so excited; she didn't want to ruin it with a sarcastic remark.

Instead, she went back to staring out the window. "I never really got into that sort of stuff, too busy with my trash cans and such…"

"Maybe while we're here, we can teach you, our teacher has almost every book on alchemy there is."

She shook her head, "That's okay, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it past the first page," _Or the first sentence._

Edward propped his feet on the empty space beside him. "Just try to at least _pretend_ to behave? Our teacher is kind of… strict."

Beryl crossed her arms behind her head, fiddling with the dial on her left ear absentmindedly, but stopping when the drumming of the engines started making her teeth hum. "Why, will she smack my hand with a ruler?"

Though she was half-joking, the brothers simultaneously shivered with dread. "If by ruler you mean wood that hasn't been chopped yet." Edward rubbed his arms, looking genuinely nervous for the first time since her supposed _life-debt_ had been put in place.

She had to think for a moment, "But… that's just a tree."

Alphonse's armor clanked lightly as he shivered too. "Uh-huh…"

Beryl looked back and forth between the brothers, and after thinking their warning through, she suddenly wanted to get away from them a whole lot quicker.

* * *

 _"Mawhmee… Ddahdee…"_

* * *

She had to say, the quiet routines of Dublith were a nice change from the regular hustle and bustle of Rush Valley, but that did little to rid Beryl of the goose pimples dotting her skin beneath her sweater. She had every intention of never coming back here, after the grueling surgery that her automail entailed, not to mention the agony that was the healing process, she snuck on the train behind a travelling family and never looked back.

Of course it had to be those idiot alchemists to be the ones to drag her back by the scruff of her neck, but it was her own fault for being so vague on her connection to Dublith.

"This place hasn't changed much…" she mumbled, taking in the damp air that said rain was coming, and the simple wooden buildings she'd long forgotten about. What the town lacked in flamboyancy it made up for in its calm simplicity, at least on the surface.

"You said you got your automail from here right?" She jumped slightly; for a two-hundred pound set of armor, Alphonse sure knew how to sneak up on people. "Did you have to come here just for the operation?"

He was being curious while trying to not be intrusive, Beryl noticed, watching the feather on the back of his helmet bob as they walked. She sighed as they passed the dress shop she frequented when she was little; her mom often scolded her when she pulled the buttons off her church dresses. She never stayed mad for long though, her dad would make her feel better by pulling buttons off his jacket, and by the end of the day her pockets would be full of them.

"No, I was actually born here." She finally admitted. "But I wandered around a lot after I lost my hearing, and Rush Valley seemed like a good place to squat, so I've been there ever since."

Edward's eyes twitched in her direction. "How'd that happen anyway? If you don't mind me asking."

She paused, unintentionally smiling as they walked by a building that used to be a bakery, she bet the inside still smelled like bread and chocolate. "I got an infection when I was four, and I lost my hearing permanently… I never learned to sign or anything like that, but then I got my aids put in so I can hear fine now."

Dominic saying her kind of automail was only done by underground doctors for criminals briefly flashed in her mind, and she scratched her cheek, feeling caked on grime build up under her nails. Guess her swan dive in that storm didn't do much to act as her monthly bath.

Movement darted by in the corner of her eye. Beryl's head swung around out of reflex but she saw nothing out of the ordinary for this time of day, but what she saw… it was too big to be a stray or a playing child…

A cold draft brushed her hair against her ear, and she found herself staring into a dark alley across the street. She pulled up the collar of her sweater again, trying to shake the feeling of being watched.

It did little to ease her growing tension.

* * *

 _"She won't die right?"_

 _"How should I know?"_

 _"Don't joke about that kind of stuff!"_

 _"Even if she does, I won't need to kick her teeth in for stealing from me... so it's a win-win either way."_

 _"Still… why are we even doing this?"_

 _"I think she's funny… and I always wanted something to make me laugh…"_

* * *

 _'Meat', at least it's straightforward…_

The butcher shop was nestled in a little back corner between the old bakery and a cobbler that Beryl didn't recognize, assuming they were new, but she remembered this shop _intimately._ She stole chickens from their deliveries and bread from their trash, often times successfully but when she was caught, the woman would beat her with a broom until she scurried back into the shadows. You'd think after finding out you're being stolen from, you'd stop leaving your delivered meats unattended, but the couple continued on as if she wasn't even there. Sometimes she would find perfectly good apples, fresh bread, and even milk that was still cold, left by their back entrance just shy of the light. Almost like, they had left it for her on purpose… but that sort of kindness stopped after she skipped town, Beryl doubted they would remember the small scavenger now.

"Well Al, we're finally here." Edward sounded about as excited as a boulder about roads, which was very little.

Alphonse didn't sound all that thrilled to be there either, responding with a droning "Yeah."

People passed them by with odd looks, but that probably wasn't surprising considering not everyone dressed in giant suits of armor to do grocery shopping. Beryl crossed her arms behind her head, already wishing for death and it wasn't even noon. "Well don't get too excited." She jibed.

"It'd be nice if Teacher wasn't home…" his reluctance to see the woman made her arch an eyebrow; the way Al talked so highly of her on the train made it sound like she was a good teacher, but rather ordinary besides that. What could a simple teacher do to make them so jumpy?

As if to throw salt in their eyes, heavy footsteps began to fall against the ground, loud enough for the three of them to feel vibrations beneath their feet from the sheer weight alone. They drew closer, and Beryl found herself taking a step behind Alphonse. Hey, if a giant were stalking towards you, you would duck behind the biggest guy in the room too.

The door to the butcher's opened with a telltale jingle from the bell above, revealing the gargantuan man to whom those stomps belonged. He wore a scowl to rival Dominic's, and held a bloody knife in his hand that glinted tauntingly in the light. The brothers flinched at the sight of it, and she didn't blame them; she'd be sprinting halfway to the station by now if she wasn't sure the tenacious little ick would catch her.

"Hello Sig…"

"Long time no see…"

The giant reached out and dropped his massive hand on Edward's head, whether he was ruffling his hair or trying to squish his head like a grape Beryl wasn't entirely sure yet. "Good to see you," he rumbled. "You've grown up a little, huh?"

By the look on Edward's face, probably the latter, he looked like he was torn between being polite and yelling out in pain from the man's vice like grip on his skull. _Oh my god he's bigger than Al!_ She thought, inching farther away from the man who could no doubt bend her spine into a pretzel.

The armored boy didn't look _half_ as wary of him as his brother or Beryl, but he still sounded rather shy when he bowed his head and said hello. "You probably don't recognize me, but it's Alphonse… sorry we've been away so long."

Sig Curtis looked at him for a moment, as if contemplating if this really was Alphonse, before reaching out and ruffling his nonexistent hair too. The grime-covered brunette thought the gesture was odd; if he thought the man would get confused then why didn't he just take off his armor? Now that she thought about it some more, she hadn't seen him out of that suit since they'd met almost a week ago. How did he eat or sleep with that stuff on all the time? What in the world was _wrong_ with these two?

"Looks like you've grown up more than a little," the expression on his helmet obviously didn't change, but pink splotches formed where his cheeks would have been in a way that Beryl could not explain. Maybe he was just _that happy_ to see his old teacher?

Sig stuck his head through the open window of their little house next to the shop, his voice low but soft as he spoke to his wife. "Izumi, the Elric shrimps are here, and they've brought a guest, think you could see them?"

She turned up her dials to better hear the woman inside. "I'll be right there… I'm feeling a little better today." Beryl had to say, the butcher who used to beat her with a broom and yell obscenities at her retreating back did not sound like herself at all. From her memory she didn't remember Izumi Curtis ever being sick enough to be bedridden, but then again, she had been gone a long time.

"Lying down? That's not a good sign…"

"Guess she hasn't gotten any better since last time…"

The door slamming open caught her by surprise, the thing nearly hitting her smack in the face had she not darted away from the wall at the last second, but what got her most was the foot that lunged from the doorway and planted itself square in Edward's nose, throwing him clear across the street. Beryl was not particularly proud of the startled chirp that fell from her mouth, or how she hid even further behind Alphonse, but she would take whatever protection she could squander at this point.

It seemed the demon who beat her with a broom had not changed, as her eyes still blazed red with fury the same way they did back then. "Hello my stupid pupil, I hear you've become one of the military's dogs!" she growled through her teeth.

 _Holy crap she's gotten even scarier since the last time I saw her! I didn't even think that was possible!_

The noise that came out of her when Izumi slowly turned her head towards them was not one for memory, although Al did not sound much better, dissolving into a stuttering mess like he was when Ridel and Satella's baby was coming. " _Ah… uh… Teacher! You see… it's… because_ …"

Her demeanor changed in an instant. "Al? Look at you, you've gotten so big!"

Beryl blinked. Rather than her near demonic rage, Izumi sounded like a proud mother congratulating her son on growing a few inches; it was more than just odd. It was a complete one-eighty to what she remembered, but Al seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief as he moved to greet his teacher.

Izumi opened her arms as if to give him a hug, before she grabbed ahold of his wrist and pulled him to the ground with a mere tug of her arm. The deaf girl scrambled back, crouched low to the ground as she tried to remain unnoticed while Alphonse groaned two feet away.

"Your skills are rusty!" she scolded, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "Now where is this guest of yours!?"

Of course, Pepper chose that exact moment to crawl out from the back of her sweater, meowing and alerting everyone of her presence. Dark brown eyes narrowed at the sight of her, as if she was trying to distinguish the young girl as a friend or a foe. They expressed no emotion, only cold analyzation from her peeling leather boots to the built-up dirt beneath her fingernails, even Pepper wasn't spared from her stare, though the tabby didn't seem too frightened by Izumi.

Beryl gulped when she leaned down, examining her features more closely. She decided to look anywhere but Izumi's face, sweat beading up at the bridge of her nose as her breath hitched in her throat.

"You're face… do I know you?" she asked, thumbing her chin thoughtfully.

Edward and Alphonse exchanged confused looks, while the brunette stuttered random words trying to piece them together into a believable excuse. "N-no… I don't think so… I think I've just got one of those faces…"

A spark of recognition twinkled in Izumi's eyes too fast for Beryl to see, and before she even knew what was happening, the butcher had already grabbed her broom and smacked her over the head with the bushy end, planting her face firmly in the dirt.

"Ah yes! I remember now! The stray who'd steal my chickens! I was wondering when you'd show your face around here again!" she cackled triumphantly, brandishing her broom like a victorious war god, or more so a witch from Beryl's delirious perspective.

The brother's screams did little to none to bring her back to the land of the living, as her smoking wound rendered her practically dead to the world, yet she still coughed out the words she had wanted to say to Izumi Curtis for years.

" _You know you're crazy… right?"_

* * *

 **Izumi is everyone's mom. And we're starting to get bits and pieces of Beryl's backstory! I won't just lay it all out in one chapter, that's lazy, no, there will be some building up to things, small chunks that seems worthless at first but add together to make something worth reading. I find fanfiction writing is great practice for the big stuff. But i'm rambling, anywho, fav and follow, read and review, see you next time. Ciao!**


	6. I Wish I Wasn't Flimsy like Paper

**Chapter 6: I Wish I Wasn't Flimsy Like Paper**

For someone who was ill and bedridden not five minutes ago, Izumi still knew how to utilize a broom like it was a weapon of warring destruction. Beryl didn't know all that much about the woman, other than she was a sadist with a titan for a husband, with tendencies to show compassion even if she looked like she could witness a puppy dying and chuckle, but _damn_ if she wasn't the most terrifying human she'd ever met.

She rubbed the swelling bump on her head, shaking away the dizziness biting at the corners of her vision and adjusting her aids. Izumi had hit her so hard the ringing had briefly reared its ugly head, but a few pokes at her dials had fixed that. However, she was not looking forward to the headache she would no doubt have later.

"You've got lots of energy for someone who's not feeling well…" Alphonse whimpered, and even Pepper jumped in fright at the butcher's ferocious rebuttal.

" _NOT FEELING WELL?! WHAT'RE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I'M PERFECTLY…"_

A torrent of blood spilled from her mouth, triggering screams of shock to sound from the trio. Beryl covered her mouth, gagging slightly at the red stain already soaking into the dirt; if there was one thing she couldn't stand it was the sight and smell of blood. The metallic scent had a tendency to overwhelm her, even if it was as small as a papercut, as a kid she'd made sure to steer clear of needles and her parents would have to scold her when she came up with elaborate excuses to escape going to the doctor for shots. Seems she had yet to grow out of that habit.

Sig placed a hand on his wife's shoulder, "You shouldn't exert yourself."

Her anger seemed to melt away completely as she embraced her husband, "How sweet of you to worry, dear." Izumi's voice came out muffled as she buried her face in his chest; the amount of affectionate sweetness in the exchange was enough for Beryl to blink in utter confusion.

 _What… the hell…?_

After the couple had invited them in for tea, Beryl had jumped at the mention of food, but sadly all Izumi had was week-old bread and had yet to buy anything from the market. Even so, she had wolfed the minuscule meal down as if it were her last, something that was analytically observed by the older woman.

She was gulping down her tea when Izumi promptly bonked Edward and Alphonse on their heads. _"When was the last time you fed this girl?!"_ she demanded, effectively scaring the pants off of both of them. She did have a point though; she hadn't really eaten a full meal since Rush Valley, unless stolen plates from the dining car on the train counted, which Beryl thought most certainly did.

Izumi then went on a tirade to the boys about how to treat a female guest, shoving the brunette towards the washroom with a towel and what looked to be a folded green dress with a promise of a hearty dinner later. Beryl very nearly started drooling in front of her.

"If you don't eat right then your chest with never grow in!"

Those words made her choke on air.

Resisting the urge to slap her own cheeks out of embarrassment, she just counted her blessings that neither Ed nor Al were around to hear that, or see her looking between Izumi's prominent chest and her own prepubescent flatness. Rather than throw gas on the fire by replying, Beryl retreated into the bathroom and pretended not to hear Izumi's amused chuckles on the other side of the door.

Cheeks ablaze, she stripped down and laid her filthy clothes in the tub before turning on the water, scrubbing away at the stains and mold while the hot water rose. She thought back to the last time she had an actual bath and not just skinny-dipping in the creek outside of town once a month. This time she had actual hot water and _soap_ , she could not even remember the last time she had real life _soap_ at her disposal!

When the tub became full, she turned off the water and wrung out her clothes, hanging them up on the sink to dry while she sunk into the water with a relieved sigh. She took the rag from the hook on the wall and _scrubbed_ at the month-old grime and filth caked onto her skin, not stopping until her arms and legs were red from her aggressive washing. Once she was sure not a speck of dirt remained, she sunk into the water until only her nose poked out for air, enjoying the heat that absorbed into her body from the water. It was a nice change compared to the freezing cold creek water, that was for sure.

She let her mind wander, dunking her head beneath the water and letting the feeling of the water in her ears lull her thoughts away…

* * *

 _"Mama… Mama look! That lady made a hand come out of the ground! Look Mama!" Beryl tugged her mother's skirt excitedly, pointing to a dark-haired woman across the road and giddily smiling in wonder._

 _Ines Desiree gently urged the little girl's hand back to her side, "Sweetie, it's not nice to point, say sorry to Mrs. Curtis." She scolded, giving Mr. Curtis a handful of cenz before taking the wrapped meat he offered her._

 _The dark-haired woman dusted off her hands, giving the small girl a soft smile when she shyly hid her face in her mother's olive colored skirt. "Sorry Miss Curtis…" she mumbled, her voice barely audible past the worn but soft fabric._

 _Ines smoothed down the flyaway strands that escaped from her daughter's braid, "Beryl, what did we talk about? Don't mumble when you speak to people sweetie,"_

 _The other woman only smiled, "Oh it's quite alright, I was shy when I was her age too, but you're such a big brave girl for accompanying your mommy out and about huh?" Beryl looked up at the woman, peeking out from her mother's skirt and forgetting her shyness, giggling happily once more._

 _"Can you do more magic?" she asked, blinking her blue and brown eyes hopefully._

 _"Beryl…" Ines chastised._

 _"Please?" she added, remembering her mother's lessons on being polite and kind to others when they show the same to you._

 _Mrs. Curtis leaned down to be at eye-level with the little girl, holding out a small piece of paper for her. Beryl took it, looking at it curiously as if waiting for it to do something amazing, but when it didn't she looked back at the woman with a pout forming on her lips. The butcher's wife only smiled kindly, "It's not magic, it's called_ alchemy _."_

 _"Alchemy? What's that? Is it like magic?" her flurry of questions made Ines pet her head some more, a soothing motion she used to calm her down when she got too excited._

 _The woman chuckled, "Almost, but not quite… here, let me show you." She grasped Beryl's small hands in her larger ones, still holding onto the piece of paper. She pulled away and clapped her hands together, similar to the way her mother and father would clap their hands together in church, before grasping the child's hands once more._

 _Blue sparks danced across Beryl's tiny fingers, and right before her eyes the piece of paper collapsed on itself before re-emerging in her palms as a folded paper-cat. Her schoolteacher, Miss Kelly, taught her class how to make paper animals once before, but it wasn't nearly as amazing as when Mrs. Curtis did it._

 _"Wow!" she exclaimed, holding up the paper cat as if it were a precious treasure. "Look Mama! It's just like Daisy!" Ines smiled down at her daughter as she referred to the family's old tomcat she had taken with her when she got married._

 _Beryl held up her new toy, running circles around her mother and the butcher's wife and laughing incoherently as a child does. She stopped in front of the dark-haired woman, beaming up at her from beneath her coppery bangs. "Can you make more?"_

 _Ines grasped her daughter's hand from above, "Now Beryl, I'm sure Mrs. Curtis is very busy…"_

 _"Don't worry, I wouldn't mind at all, come back any time little one…" Brown and blue eyes stared at Mrs. Curtis, wondering why she was smiling but still looked so sad, she quickly forgot to ask in favor of asking her to make more paper cats._

 _The woman laughed, "Sure, and maybe one day you can make your own if you like…"_

 _"Like with mag… alchemy!" she stopped herself from saying_ magic _, remembering Mrs. Curtis correcting her before. The woman nodded and Beryl giggled again, holding up her paper cat for Ines to see. Her mother tossed her sun-yellow half-tail over her shoulder and looking down at her with an amused pair of green and blue eyes. "Look Mama! Miss Curtis made it with alchemy!"_

 _Look Mama…_

 _Mama…_

 _Mah…mah…_

 _Mawhmee… Ddahdee…_

* * *

Maybe zoning out while underwater wasn't the best idea. Beryl emerged from the water with wrinkled fingers and a much more bummer attitude, having spent the rest of her bath thinking about when she first met Izumi Curtis. She hadn't thought about that memory for a good long while, since at the time she was smaller and much less dirty. She also smiled a lot more when she was little; innocent and cute smiles that were as genuine as a sunrise, not the fake puppy-dog grins she used to trick poor saps into sliding her some cash for barely edible scraps of food.

She climbed out of the tub, toweling off and pushing her drying clothes to the edge of the sink to better see her foreign reflection in the mirror. She had a bruise forming underneath her chin from when she fell off that path in Rush Valley; the second half of her debt to the Elric dorks, but nothing different from when she had last looked in a mirror. Beryl sighed and ran her fingers through her tangled mess of hair before redoing the braid that made up what wasn't a part of her dusty brown bob.

The dress Izumi had given her was soft, much softer than her scratchy yellow sweater, but it was also a size bigger than she was and sleeveless. Pants and shirts better suited Beryl's on-your-toes lifestyle, and the openness and flowing fabric of dresses made her paranoid, but her other clothes were wet, so she decided to suck it up and put the damn thing on.

But she was _keeping_ her worker-boots.

She didn't _care_ if they were a size too small and covered in caked mud!

* * *

It seemed as though Teacher had changed very little since Alphonse was ten years old. After she had hit his brother over the head and practically _commanded_ them to wash up for dinner and check on how Beryl was doing, they had submitted to complete the tasks given to them. Edward had shooed him off to _go get the street rat_ , of which Al scolded him once more. Despite her… _rough_ outward appearance, Beryl was still a lady, and Alphonse was nothing if not a gentleman!

He was almost to the washroom door and about to knock when it swung open, hitting him square in the face and punching a hole through the wood with the spike on his helmet. He let out a startled scream, pulling his head free and trying to quickly assess the damage done.

"What're you doing?"

Alphonse peaked through the new hole in the door, seeing Beryl rubbing her still-wet hair with a fluffy towel and wearing a pear-green dress. She was looking at him with an arched eyebrow, letting the towel bunch up around her neck and shoving her hands into the pockets of the dress.

"Oh! Well I uh… I sort of… yeah…" he danced around for an excuse, only gesturing to the broken door in between his random words. Beryl looked from Alphonse to the door and back again, confusion growing on her face.

"Okay then…"

A silence stretched between them, and Al didn't refrain from noticing how different she looked in feminine clothing; it was big on her, but not large enough to hide how little she ate like her normal bulky sweater. Her bottom ribs poked out through the fabric, and her arms were lanky and thin. If her hair was shorter and she were in her regular set of clothing, Al probably would've confused her for a boy. His brother once mentioned similar puzzlement from his point of view.

However, free of dirt, and in one of Teacher's dresses, Beryl was no doubt female.

He made a sound that sounded like gulping as the two of them still remained in eye-contact, only made worse when she looked up at him and smirked. "See something you like, huh?" she teased, crossing her arms over her chest and winking.

" _WHAT?!"_ Alphonse dissolved into a mess of embarrassed word-garbles, and despite not having a physical body, he still felt his face burn from her comment. "I just… I was only… I was checking if you had any injuries from the cliff is all!" he decided, figuring that sounded far better than the truth.

Beryl burst into a fit of laughter, clutching her stomach. "Oh I bet you were checking _something_!"

He hid his face in his hands, even though his mortification couldn't be shown on his hollow armor shell. "I promise it's not like that! I would never…"

She only laughed harder, tears of mirth streaming down her face at Al's expense, much to his growing horror. "Don't look so scared man! I'm just messing with you!" she playfully punched him in the arm before shoving her hands back in her pockets and walking to the end of the hall. Alphonse stood frozen for a moment, before following her with his eyes, watching her turn and give a two-fingered salute with her tongue out and another teasing wink in her one brown eye.

"Come on, I'm starving and I think your Teach said dinner would be ready soon!" she chirped, not waiting for him to follow as she disappeared around the corner.

Al blinked, or at least would if he could. "Hey, wait for me!"

He took off jogging after her, trying to forget about what just happened instead of giving her more fodder to use at his expense. He felt Pepper meow irately inside his chest plate as the feline became jostled inside his armor, persuading him to slow to a walk. Sliding his shoulder piece upwards, the tabby emerged with a growl before settling on top of his head, which Al appreciated.

It was better that Beryl didn't know about his and Ed's… _conditions._

At least not yet anyway.

* * *

 **I stand by what I said: Izumi is everyone's mom! And Beryl is being her normal self: a little shit with a big mouth. If it seems like she's shallow and unlikeable, its because she is! But through this fic as well as good ole fashioned CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT that will most certainly change. It's gonna be a wild ride tho, so buckle up kids. Bye for now!**


	7. To Take What You Want

**Chapter 7: To Take What You Want**

Izumi and Sig sure knew how to treat their guests. The couple had gone all out in preparing a genuine home-cooked meal, complete with all the savory smells and almost _glowing_ sight of the hot food that had Beryl salivating in her chair. The meat from their shop made the stuff in Rush Valley look like dog scraps, and the now dirt-free girl ripped the stuff from the bone with manner akin to a starving animal. Once the bones on her plate were scraped clean, she stuffed her face with several of the dinner rolls Izumi had baked herself. They were still hot and the steam from the fluffiness inside filled her nose with a smell that reminded her of what a home should be. No shortage of delicious food or clean clothes or warm beds.

Something she had not had for herself since she was a little girl.

However, while her table manners were abysmal at best, Sig and Izumi didn't say anything, so she decided not to question it. Alphonse wasn't eating anything though, despite the prepared plate of food in front of him, he just kind of sat there not making a sound or even moving. Who wears armor to the dinner table anyway? Her manners weren't good but they weren't _that bad._

Sig seemed to notice the same thing, "You aren't eating Al?" he asked around a mouthful of chicken.

Beryl watched him emerge from a sort of stupor, still and unmoving to as lively as a fourteen-year-old boy usually tended to be. "Oh no, I'm fine, I had a big meal on the train ride here!" he insisted.

A dinner rolls in each hand and half of one still being chewed in her mouth, she raised an eyebrow. "What, no he didn't…"

"Hey Al! You should tell them about Rush Valley! About the baby being delivered!" Edward quickly interrupted, changing the subject and causing Beryl to fix him with a curious look. He narrowed his eyes, silently telling her to drop it. She just shrugged and went back to stuffing her face.

Wasn't her business anyway…

The big guy practically lit up though, "Oh yeah! We helped deliver a baby, there was this big storm and we couldn't get the mother to a doctor…"

"I don't know, it's pretty generous to call what we did _helping_ …"

The two got lost recounting the story, excluding the part where Beryl almost got herself killed as well as how they met in the first place, which she was somewhat thankful for; she didn't need more people like Edward looking down on her and calling her a _street rat, flea bag, bum,_ or even…

 _Alley Cat…_

Drowning her thoughts with more food, she noticed how Sig looked to his wife _. Concern_? Seeping into his features, but she didn't think he had anything to worry about, Izumi looked completely indifferent, only smiling as the brothers told her about Satella and how brave she was during the birth.

"Well, it was mostly Winry… but everyone pitched in, everyone's blessed when a baby is born, huh?"

For some reason, Izumi looked much older in that moment. Her eyebrows taught but her smile still gentle… kind of like that of a stern mother, a bit like Ines used to be, but much more coarse and tough compared to Beryl's own mother.

"Yes, that's right." she sighed, "That same miracle that brings us all into this world, always take pride in the lives that were given you."

Edward and Alphonse exchanged a happy look, but Sig stared down at his now untouched food… sadly…

Beryl set down her fourth roll, the bread only half-eaten.

She suddenly didn't feel all that hungry anymore.

* * *

Beryl could not even begin to tell you how tempting it was to dive into the bed like a child at a sleepover. Enough to the point of her saying _to hell with it_ and diving in anyway, bouncing twice before settling in the unbelievably comfortable duvet. Her mattress on top of Garfiel's was nowhere _near_ this soft, not to mention this bed had a headboard, and was completely devoid of mold and fleas too.

 _Man,_ she thought, crossing her arms behind her head on the crisp, clean pillow, _I could get used to those Boobs if it means living like this._

She then scoffed; those brothers had been nothing but a pain in her arse, and she was starting to think it wasn't because of some stupid lunch bill that made Edward drag her around by the scruff. Maybe it was his wounded pride, or Alphonse getting attached to Pepper and this was all an elaborate scheme to steal her cat. Unlikely, but even still, Pepper was _her_ pet! And had been since she pulled him out of a literal gutter, pleading with her dad to let her keep him because she _knew_ Ines would never agree.

Her father did relent, and Pepper had been by her side ever since.

Beryl's thoughts drifted some more as she began to doze off. Even if Edward was still pricked about the food, it's not like she stole his wallet or something valuable like Paninya did, it was just one lousy meal. Not to mention, the jerk was a big and fancy _state alchemist,_ and she heard from around town that the military paid them decent cash, so she didn't even rob him of that much.

He was just an angry little sod with a bruised ego and a weirdo for a brother.

Beryl huffed, bunching the blanket up in her fists before burrowing into it, Pepper curling up in the crook of her legs as she began to drift to sleep.

 _What did they know anyway? The only way to get by in this world is to take what you want._

 _And give nothing back._

* * *

 _"_ _She's so filthy!"_

 _"_ _Go on! Hit her some more!"_

 _"_ _Kick her face too!"_

 _Their voices came out muffled and slurred like they were deep underwater, and Beryl hugged her head tighter to block their kicks and keep them from bruising her face any more. The neighborhood boys always chased her through the street when they caught her trying to beg their parents for food, they almost never caught her, but when they did, they always made a point to leave her bruised and bloody._

 _"_ _Leem me arone!" she screamed at them, unable to hear their mocking laughter at her slurred manner of speaking._

 _"_ _Listen to her talk! What're you even saying?" one of them taunted, but Beryl could only see his lips moving as he sneered down at her. She curled her upper lip in an attempt at a threatening snarl, but the ginger-haired boy only kicked her stomach again._

 _His sandy-headed friend pulled her ear painfully until she whimpered submissively. "Talk normally, you freak!"_

 _The third boy, the baker's son, grabbed the scruff of her shirt and used it to thrash her around like a limp doll. "Le' go om me!"_

 _"_ _What was that? Sorry, I can't understand you, stupid!"_

 _Feeling something trickle down from her ear, Beryl knew her stitches had torn again, and that she had to stop them before they did any more damage. Grabbing a fistful of dirt, she threw it in the ginger boy's face, affectively blinding him and darting away while he was distracted. He cried and rubbed his eyes as tears sprouted free, and his friends focused on him while she managed to get away, ducking into an alley and hiding behind a trash bin until they gave up looking for her._

 _She felt like hugging her knees and crying, but she settled for gritting her teeth and clenching her weak fists over her knees. Those rotten boys always sought her out when they had time on their hands; pulling her hair and calling her stupid, throwing trash and stones at her, and telling their parents that she was a thief and a liar. So they turned up their noses in disgust too._

 _Touching her jawline, and looking at her bloody fingers, Beryl opened the trashcan and looked for something to clean it off with. Finding an old rag, she pressed it to her ear, wincing as it throbbed like a heartbeat inside her head._

 _That heartbeat and the ringing that came when it got too loud, was all she could hear anymore._

 _Her stomach growled painfully, reminding her of why those boys targeted her today in the first place. She had been digging around in the baker's garbage, and his son had spotted her, prompting the chase that lead to where she was now. She had managed to find some barely moldy bread, but had dropped it in her escape, and was now left with nothing._

 _Beryl held her stomach in an attempt to quiet it down, but to no avail. She was getting weaker and weaker every day; if she didn't eat something, she'd surely starve to death._

 _She did not want to steal, but in this matter of life and death, she didn't have any other choice. Peeking out from the shadows of the alley, Beryl surveyed the foot traffic; mostly men between their break times, and women with their young children. A few people looked clean enough to at least have some cenz to spare, but nothing easily accessible to a pickpocket. Beryl guessed that was kind of the point, but her stomach gurgled in protest regardless._

 _Deciding to try and come across someone in a crowd, she fisted her hands in the holed pockets of her ratty dress and emerged from the alley, trying to look as ordinary as possible t not attract attention. However, in a town like Dublith, a scrappy eight-year-old girl covered in filth tended to be avoided. Her appearance practically screamed thieving orphan, and while it gained some sympathy, it was never enough to keep her well fed._

 _Moreover, she refused to go to an orphanage. She would starve even quicker in there, she was sure of it._

 _Suddenly, her odd-colored eyes caught someone in the crowd just ahead of her path. It was a man, huge in stature but skinny in frame, wearing mostly leather with a fur-collared vest and tinted sunglasses. She'd never seen him before, assuming him a visitor, but what drew her eyes the most was the weighed pouch dangling from his belt. It shifted with his every step, no doubt filled with coins, enough to buy a meal big enough to stave her hunger. The mere thought of it made her mouth water; Beryl shook her head, not tearing her eyes away from the pouch as the man drew closer and closer to her._

 _She would have to be fast, grab the pouch and run with all her strength. As strange of a dresser he was, the man looked strong enough to beat her worse than those boys could ever hope to, and she did not want to be on the receiving end of those large arms of his._

 _Acting before she could think to hesitate, Beryl grabbed the pouch tight and snatched it from his belt, breaking into a run and clutching the bag to her chest like a lifeline as she shoved past people in the crowd. When the man did not yell after her or even look up, she smiled excitedly, thinking she had successfully secured her dinner._

 _She almost managed to get away from the crowd too, but a strong hand snatching her by the back of her dress interrupted her shallow victory. The hand held her above the ground while she kicked and thrashed, but as much as she struggled, the man was too strong to be affected by a scrawny girl such as herself._

 _"_ _Well, well, well, what do we have here, a little flea bag!" Blue and brown met the man's tinted specs, gulping as he flashed her a grin that was both amused and hungry in a way that made her skin crawl. He grabbed at the pouch in her arms and tried to take it back, but Beryl held it tight, shaking her head violently and refusing to let go. "Wow… the flea bag has guts, too bad you won't live to brag about it!"_

 _His vice-like grip on her released and she dropped to the ground with a thud. She made a move to scurry away, but the man firmly planted the sole of his boot on her cheek, painfully pinning her to the dirt. Even so, as tears stung her eyes, she did not let go of the bag of coins, knowing she'd die without it._

 _The man grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged at it hard, "You know flea bag, I really wanted to spend that money on some delicious food and women, so you're getting in the way of what I want." His fanged grin looked poised enough to bite her, but Beryl squeezed her eyes shut and held the bag as close to her tiny body as possible. "And_ no one _gets in the way of what_ I want. _"_

 _"_ _No!" she cried, swiping her stubby nails across his face in a weak attempt to scratch him. "I nead id do ge' food! If I don' I'll die!"_

 _He briefly stopped pulling her hair, only to burst into a roaring laughter that prompted the deaf girl to peak out through her eyelashes. His voice was only a series of garbled sounds and vibrations in her deaf ears, but the way he kept beating and clawing for his money, she could guess what he wanted. However, the way he laughed and cackled like a lunatic confused Beryl. What was so funny?_

 _"_ _Whas so funney?"_

 _He clutched his stomach and laughed even harder, drawing strange gazes from onlookers on the street. "Oh man kid! You're hilarious! What the hell is wrong with your voice? You sound like you're choking on your own tongue!" his fingers pinched her earlobe and tugged, triggering a whimper from Beryl and a curious look when a droplet of blood sprung free. He hummed, "Can you even hear what I'm saying?"_

 _Reading his lips, she shook her head, holding her ear tenderly when he finally let go._

 _"_ _Deaf_ and _dumb! That's a sight for sore eyes!" he shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather pants, the pouch of coins seemingly forgotten. "You know what flea-bag? I'm feeling a little generous today thanks to that laugh you gave me! How about you keep the money, I've got loads to spare, but you have to do something for me first, okay?"_

 _She blinked up at him, dumbfounded; he had been about to beat her into the ground a moment ago, now he was offering her generosity? Beryl clutched the pouch of coins like a comfort object, distrustful of the man who smiled at her like she was his next meal. He definitely wanted something from her, but she was so hungry…_

 _Her stomach roared to life, making the man chuckle lowly once more. "If you're really that hungry, then get yourself some food; you have the money, or… if you_ really _want to eat like a king, I can show you all my tricks." He kneeled down to her level, roughly patting her head like she was a stray dog. "You'll never go hungry again."_

 _"_ _Why?"_

 _He held out his open palm to her, a red lizard curled up on top of his hand that disappeared when Beryl tried to find it again._

 _"_ _Because you make me laugh, and I could really use a laugh right now."_

* * *

 _ **Be prepared, cause I am about to kick Beryl's ass into next week. Like I explained before, she's acting like a little shit who's prideful, apathetic, and doesn't know that her actions have consequences. Part of it is her circumstance, and part of it is the way she was brought up in the world: by the skin of her teeth. She's an asshole and a victim of circumstance. But she still has a long ways to go before she gets to where she's meant to be. But i'm just rambling at this point to fill space. Leave your questions, comments, reviews in those boxes and i'll see you next time!**_


	8. And Give nothing Back

**Chapter 8: And Give Nothing Back**

 _Opposite to what she thought would happen when the well-dressed man dragged her into a seedy-looking bar, Beryl continued scarfing down the food in front of her in silence. He had snapped his fingers at a lithe woman with short blonde hair and mouthed something to her. She gave Beryl an onceover before sneering and disappearing into the back room. While it made the little girl stare at her bare feet shamefully, the woman still came back with a plate of hot food, almost slamming the plate down in front of her._

 _Beryl looked between her and the steaming meal for a very long time before the man tapped her back with his palm, prompting her to dig in. She had long abandoned her manners in favor of dirty hands and bits of pork stuck to the sides of her mouth, and the whole time the man just watched from the barstool beside her own, sipping from a flask and smirking._

 _He tugged her earlobe, though not as hard as before, to grab her attention. "Anyone ever teach you to mind your manners in front of guests, flea bag?"_

 _She leaned over the plate as if protecting it, thinking he would go back on his word and steal it. "Iv yoo don' gif a damn, then don' over me food, bashard!"_

 _The words felt bitter in her mouth, but she'd seen the vicar say them when he spat on her, and they seemed to do the trick just fine, as the man blinked down at her with a surprised expression on his face. "Huh? No one teach you how to watch your mouth either, I'm guessing?"_

 _Beryl inched to take a bite out of her food, but stopped. She shook her head and set down her pork, the meat suddenly tasting ashy in her mouth so she didn't feel hungry anymore. The man took a long sip from his flask, "That so? No need for me to sugar-coat anything then!" he laughed loudly, shoving his rough hand into her tangled hair and rubbing her scalp. His fingers tugged on her knots painfully so she shoved his arm away, "You've got spunk flea-bag! But that nick-name is getting kinda old for me, anything you'd prefer or should I give you a name to save myself the trouble?"_

 _She kicked her legs back and forth on the stool, staring down at her swinging feet instead of meeting his hungry gaze._

 _"Going once… going twice?" he reached to tug her ear again, but she pointed to something behind the bar before he could._

 _He scanned the shelf where she was pointing, seeing an old scotch bottle with a crack in the neck. "Southern Beryl's Hooch, Remembool brand…" she nodded, confirming his thoughts on what she was trying to explain. "So you're name's Beryl?"_

 _Another nod._

 _Something clicked in his memory, "Oh yeah! I heard about you from some drunks in here a few years back, you're Desiree's kid aren't you?" Beryl blinked owlishly at him, watching as he took off his sunglasses and tossed them away._

 _His eyes were strange, and not in the way hers were, they were at least the same color, but they were a warm shade of purple she hadn't ever seen before. His teeth were pointed, like a dog's, and the tattoo on his hand had reappeared. Red and hot, and it made her uncomfortable just looking at it, like if she stared too long she'd get in trouble._

 _"Everybody still talks about it you know?_ Oh, what a terrible tragedy! _It's funny to see them all, with their crocodile tears and fake sympathy."_

 _"Shud uhp!" she snapped, balling up her tiny fists._

 _A wolfish grin spread across his face. "Oh? Did I hit a nerve? Don't know why I would though, as far as anyone in this town is concerned you died right along with your folks, you're just a little street rat, unwelcomed by your own friends, I wonder how that feels…"_

 _Tears burned behind her eyes as Beryl grit her teeth and tried not to cry in front of him, but it was a fruitless effort as they ran down her dirty cheeks. "Thas naht true…" she whimpered._

 _"You don't have to listen to me kid, but I'm telling you; the only way to get anything you want in this world is to_ take it, _and you don't give nothing back either, 'cause it's the same courtesy you'd get from anyone else." He finished off his flask and jumped over the bar to refill it._

 _Beryl trembled as she cried, not wanting to believe a word he said, but still thinking about the way she'd been treated. Those neighborhood boys used to fight to sit next to her at school, the baker used to offer her sweets when her parents brought her there, and the vicar used to smile kindly at her every Sunday._

 _Now everywhere she went in town, she was looked at with disgust, like she was scum of the earth. Miss Lila threw her garbage in Beryl's old house like her friends hadn't lived there, the nice baker threw stones at her, that rotten vicar always spat on her, and those little neighborhood bastards never passed an opportunity to make her day hell._

 _She clenched her fists and grit her teeth harder, until her knuckles were white and her jaw hurt from the strain. Reaching across the bar, the grasped the tail of his vest and tugged twice, successfully roping his attention._

 _"What now flea-bag? You gonna cry for your mommy some more?" he taunted. He wasn't expecting her to look up from her lap with fire in her eyes he had not been prepared to see. She looked angry, as though she was going to try to fight the whole world. The kind of fire he liked in his possessions._

 _"Pleaze… tecch me how toe shteal."_

 _Violet stayed locked with brown and blue until the man smirked, rubbing her head once more as if she were a dog that had done a good job. "Fine, but nothing's free kid, you gotta' do some stuff for me first, sound good?"_

 _Her firm nod gave him the impression that he wasn't going to shake her from his leg anytime soon, no matter how funny she was._

 _"Good, we're on the same page… now for introductions, little Beryl Desiree…" he held out his hand, palm facing towards himself, allowing Beryl to see his tattoo at a closer angle. It was a red lizard, curled in a circle as it ate its own tail, the image sent a chill up her spine, although she wasn't sure why._

 _"My name is Greed, and I want everything on this earth you could ever think of…"_

* * *

 _That same day, Greed had taken her into a back room where a plethora of scary-looking people resided. She was already small for an eight-year-old, but standing in the shadow of a man larger than her house with a permanent scowl etched on his face had her cowering behind Greed's legs._

 _The man had placed his hand on her back, shoving her forward hard enough to make her stumble nearly onto the giant's feet. "Don't look so terrified kid, if you're gonna' hang with us, the scaredy-cat crap is gonna's have to end here."_

 _When she didn't respond, Greed nearly kicked himself; she was deaf, she could not hear him even if he yelled. He tugged her ear again, pulling her to face him, "Afraid these are gonna's have to go too, can't be in a gang if you can't participate, and you can't do squat with ears like that." she whimpered but said nothing, sitting silently while the others in the room gave her distrustful looks. One of them even bared his teeth and growled,_

 _"Don't mean to sound like a jealous brat, but who's the kid?" he leaned close to her face, sniffing like a dog and snorting when he realized she smelled of filth and garbage. "She smells like a dump."_

 _Greed crossed his arms over his chest, "Meet the newest addition to the Devil's Nest, a real clown, you guys will love her, trust me… but first, Dolly, give ole' Hyde a ring for me would you?"_

 _"What'd you need him for?" Dolly woofed, "And it's Dolcetto, not_ Dolly _." He seemed to be barking that at Beryl rather than his boss, not wanting her to remember the nickname._

 _"Whatever, just get him down here, this little street rat won't be of much use if she can't hear." He explained, patting her on the back as she twiddled with the frayed hem of her dress. "And get her some new clothes, something to eat too."_

 _The man, Dolcetto, sniffed her again, almost curiously as though he were trying to pinpoint her exact inner thoughts just by her scent alone. "I don't know… won't people notice she's missing? This feels like asking for trouble Greed."_

 _Greed flopped into a cushioned chair that kind of looked like a throne, cracking his neck with a loud pop and groaning at the pleasure it brought him. "Please," he added, crossing his arms behind his head, "This ankle biter is as orphaned as they come, she's the Desiree's kid."_

 _Looks were exchanged throughout the room, all of them knowing that name from the papers, the drunken rumors throughout the bar, and the vicar's so-called_ thoughts and prayers _of the Desiree's during services. Services in which the gang in question were sourly uninvited._

 _Beryl snuck a peek behind her back towards Greed, the man sipping blood-colored liquid from a mug as he grinned about nothing. His violet eyes met hers and she quickly looked away, but he grabbed the back of her dress again anyway, pulling her into his lap despite her squirming._

 _"Don't worry your dirty little head flea-bag, I'll teach you everything I know about the world and how to make it yours." he told her, pushing his sunglasses back onto his nose and hiding his soul from view. "Stick with me, and you won't ever be hungry again."_

* * *

 _It was noon, when the crowd was the thickest and it was nearly impossible to see past the first few people without being stampeded. Beryl gulped, feeling nervous and a bit overwhelmed, stepping backwards in an attempt to back out of this harsh lesson, but Greed stopped her with a hand on her back, giving her a firm push forwards. She couldn't retreat now as she was thrust into the crowd, forcing her legs to move, no matter how much they felt like lead in that moment._

 _She passed about twelve people before she spotted her intended target, the ginger-haired bully who chased her. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched, anger pooling in her stomach as she thought about how much he and his friends tormented her. Beryl wanted so badly to make them feel the same as she had; beaten down, kicked into the dirt, and turned away out of disgust as if she was nothing. As much as she wanted that, however, it would have to wait. That wasn't her job today, her job involved the cenz she knew he kept in his pockets, for sweets and luxuries he bragged about constantly, bragged because he had them and she didn't._

That ends today.

 _He stopped walking when he spotted her, recognition sparking in his eyes that grew into a devious smirk on his face. "Look who it is, the gutterpup." He sneered, "Just because you're all clean now doesn't mean you're not still a freak!"_

 _It was true that after many baths accompanied by a grumbling Martel, Beryl looked better than she had in months, but that did little to fix the impediment of her speech. The large and scary man, Roa, had attempted at teaching her some form of sign language, but it was too complicated and Beryl became easily frustrated and gave up._

 _The boy leaned in close to her, unhappy at not receiving a response. "What's wrong? Still can't hear, or are you too stupid to know what I'm saying?" he poked her cheek and flicked her forehead, making her wince but still not reply to his jabs and jeers, but it only seemed to anger him further. "You freak! Why don't I talk slower so an airhead like you can understand?" he reached to grab her ear and tug, slurring his words and blatantly mocking her in the process._

 _Before he could grab her, Beryl grit her teeth hard enough to hear her own thundering heartbeat. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it, feeling it pop beneath her grip just like how Greed had shown her, the boy yelped and struggled against her, spouting out curse words and other nasty names she had all heard before. Her blue and brown eyes met his, blazing with untapped fury hot enough to make him nervous, even afraid. Reeling back before he could call for help, Beryl made a tight fist and punched him square between his eyes._

 _He dropped like a stone in a pool, and her hand hurt terribly, but she'd never felt better. The boy began to cry, trying to be quicker than his tears in wiping them away, crying out for his mother and father to help him._

 _Her mother and father had not been there when she had called for them._

 _Anger pooled in her stomach as she punched him again, this time in his chest, then on both of his arms, and his nose, not even his ears were safe as she pulled on them with all her might. She watched him sob and cry out pathetically, and a circle of onlookers had formed around them, either too engrossed in a homeless girl beating the baker's boy or too embarrassed to actually step in to stop it._

 _Her knuckles hurt, and twinges of guilt twitched amidst all her anger, but Beryl did not stop until she saw the baker's wife, Miss Lilly scream at the sight of her son being beaten so ruthlessly in the middle of the street. She shoved past the crowd, and Beryl felt a touch of fear at what she would do when she reached the two, but she didn't get the chance to entertain that thought, as thick arms wrapped around her middle and took off with her into a dark corner away from the ruckus._

 _Looking up at Greed, Beryl couldn't stop the smile that bloomed on her face; toothy and bursting at the seams with pride, the fanged man ruffled her hair, a laugh bubbling up from his core as he congratulated her. "That's what I'm talkin' about kid!" he praised, "Didn't that just feel great? Stickin' it to the brats that pushed you around?"_

 _She nodded, holding her sore hands as bruises began to form, but she hardly noticed it over the rush she felt pulsing with her heart._

 _"Well this is just the beginning," he promised, giving her hair one last rustle before setting her down. "You just stick with me kid, take what you want…"_

 _"Gif nothin' bahck!" she completed, beaming up at him excitedly like he was the coolest guy in the world._

 _Even if she had yet to learn all of Greed's intentions._

* * *

 ** _Yep, he's an ass the size of texas, and as fine as it is, Greed has big plans for Beryl. Sorry about the wait but what can ya do? Anyway, next chapter will start off with our last bit of flashback, but then it'll get right back into the swing I promise! Until next time! *gayly exists* Aaaaaaaaaaand goodbye._**


	9. Prosperity Always Leads to Greed

**Chapter 9: Prosperity Always Leads to Greed**

 _She had so many memories of that dingy old bar. Most of her important childhood milestones took place within its walls, despite it only lasting two years. Two wonderful, awesome, terrible years. After the incident in the street, Greed had taken her under his wing; he taught her the ropes of taking what you wanted without a single care of consequence. She became dependent on his praise, looking up at him through eyes glinting with awe and admiration. She wanted more than anything to stand where he stood, to stand where Martel, Dolcetto, and Roa stood with him._

 _Greed became a pillar Beryl wanted more than anything in the world to reach. She was still on the ground, but she needed to be up where he was._

 _The neighborhood boys never bothered her again, and to reward her for her balls, Greed called in a grizzly man who smelled like an old shoe into the Devil's Nest, who told her to call him Dr. Hyde before offering her a piece of candy. Looking to Greed for confirmation, he nodded, and she took it without any further questions, but the second it had fully dissolved on her tongue, her head began to feel funny._

 _"Don't worry Flea-Bag, Hyde here's gonna take care of you real nice, so for now… just… sleep…"_

 _She had woken up to Martel shaking her shoulder and talking her ear off about needing to eat something, but that wasn't what had made her cry hard enough to make her head hurt. It was the fact that she heard Martel_ at all _. She could hear everything now; birds, people, even small things like crickets and rain. The metal in and around her ears was cold and a bit heavy, but it was more than worth it to have the ability to hear again. Dr. Hyde said her recovery time would be a few months, with regular tune-ups and visits to see how her body was reacting to her new automail, but she was far too happy to worry about all that. Even her speech patterns were showing improvement, she no longer slurred her words or missed vowels, and began talking regularly again._

 _To celebrate, Greed even stole her a slingshot to use if she ever got too hot on the job, he brought her out to the woods to practice with it and they didn't leave until she hit at least one bullseye. They had returned to the bar, the nine-year-old exhausted but smiling as she fell asleep in her warm bed._

 _Dolcetto trailed behind her when she went outside the bar; acting as usual despite everyone's insistence that she could handle small jobs on her own. He was hardly ever noticed by the small girl, but one day when she squealed and sprinted into an alley, hugging a dusty tabby like it were a stuffed toy and not a living animal, the man became defensive._

 _He grabbed the cat by the scruff, ignoring its growls and hisses of protest, holding it above her head and chastising her for the possibility of the mangy things having fleas or ticks. Beryl kicked him in the shin, making him drop the rodent back into her arms, this time_ her _scolding_ him _for hurting it. She even gave it a name,_ Pepper, _and whining about how it was her pet from before…_

 _She went silent after that._

 _The thing was never allowed in the bar, but she snuck scraps out to it when it hung out in the trash. Once even when she was feeding the feline a piece of discarded chicken, a boy carrying groceries passed the bar's back alley, stopping when he saw her crouched near the garbage with her cat. He approached her with a kind smile, asking if she was hungry and wanted one of the apples in his bag._

 _Beryl blinked at him for a moment, staring at the shiny red fruit in his outstretched hand. She grit her teeth, snarled, and shoved him to the ground. He was just like those neighborhood boys, always looking down on her, never giving her mercy, but she was different now. She wasn't a little weakling anymore, so she yelled that to the boy as he rubbed his sore blonde head. Beryl kicked what remained of his grocery bag, growling that this alley was all hers and that he had no right to be in it, and smirking when he fearfully turned tail and ran away._

 _As mad as she had been, she still picked up the discarded apple, wiped it on her shirt, and ate it down to the core._

 _She had been ten._

 _After that, Greed started sending her on harder and harder jobs, jobs that had her needing more than just a slingshot and quick feet, dangerous jobs that she was afraid to accept. But, Greed had just shrugged her off, having faith that she could handle it, but the harder he pushed her the more she began to mess up._

 _You don't mess up in the Devil's Nest._

 _Every time she failed, Greed showed behavior that scared her, he showed a side of himself she'd never seen before and it was enough to make her never want to mess up again. However, she was losing the confidence to get the job done, and was building a losing streak that was pushing Greed's patience past the breaking point._

 _Things were changing._

 _They had changed._

 _Everything was different now…_

 _I…_

 _I…_

 _"I can't do this…"_

* * *

Beryl woke up at about three am, feeling like crap and damp with sweat to top it off. She groaned, running her fingers through her cool hair and staring up into the darkness, hopefully at the ceiling of Izumi's second guest room.

A brief flash outside the bedroom window had her blinking to adjust her eyes; it was nearing the end of summer, so heat storms were common in Dublith and most of the southern areas. They pulsed like a heartbeat amidst the pitch-black night sky, and Beryl found herself entranced. The lightning flashes worked as a sort of nightlight, lulling her back to sleep so she could forget about the memories she hadn't dreamt of in four years.

She didn't want to ever come back to Dublith; the town that reeked of the sewer rat she used to be. Rush Valley had exactly what she wanted, unassuming people that didn't ever question the kid with automail aids and dirt on her cheeks. It was a dusty town full of dusty people, one little girl dirtier than the rest wasn't anything to blink at.

But, moving backwards is just as easy as going forward, and it seems she was in the backwards portion now.

Beryl sighed and rolled onto her side, content with watching the lightning flash across the small window. A strike shot the ground close enough to illuminate the entire room, as well as a shadow leaning down from the roof, obscuring part of the light in the perfect shape of a person, it's eyes glowing in the dark.

To say she quickly sat up on the bed would be an insulting understatement; she very nearly leapt to her feet if not for her still half-asleep body, flicking on the light beside her bed. Another flash, the room flooded with new light, and the shadow she'd seen was gone, almost as if it was never there to begin with, but she was _sure_ she'd seen something. A face in the window, two palms pressed against the glass…

And what looked like a tail dangling from the shadow's place on the wall.

Beryl gripped the front of her shirt, trying to slow her racing heart, a bead of icy sweat running down her cheek.

She turned away from the window, wrapping the blanket around her body in an attempt to chase away the chill that had stuck to her back. She stiffly reached for the light, about to turn it back off, but the thought of being plunged into the dark again, with that shadow in the window…

Her hand retreated under the blanket, staring at the comforting light instead of the watching window.

Hours passed before she fell asleep again.

* * *

The next day, Beryl felt more dead than alive, but was constantly looking over her shoulder even within the confines of the Curtis home, and it was something the Elric dorks took notice of.

"Too many late night snacks?" Edward jibbed.

She hissed through her teeth, "Too many rusty joints Shortcake?"

That had earned her a knock on the head and a rant about genetics and its effect on height and growth that she only heard half of; she did not have even the slightest speck of energy to spare. Ignoring Edward's angry word fountain, she noticed Alphonse sitting on the couch as still as a statue. He was so quiet and unmoving it was hardly a wonder she had not noticed his large form before.

His silence seemed very well preferred over his brother's shouting, so Beryl flopped onto the cushion next to his. "Either you slept in that thing or you change _really_ quietly." She commented, sticking her pinky in her left aid and chiseling at some caked up earwax in the back of it.

"Huh?" Al acknowledged her presence for the first time that morning, Pepper jumping into his lap and rubbing his head against his armored chest. "Oh, yeah… I guess."

She arched an eyebrow at his far off voice, like he was only partly paying attention to everything around him. _Don't get involved, don't get involved, don't get involved…_ "Something on your mind?"

 _Damnit._

He at least perked up a little at that, looking up from blankly staring at his own hand as it pet Pepper's head. "Oh! You don't have to worry about me! Did you sleep well?"

Beryl thought about the shadow she'd seen in her window, watching her. "Yeah sure, like a baby… but I have to ask…" she began, looking at Alphonse from head to metal toe with near excruciating focus. "How come I've never seen you eat? Big guy like you has to have the appetite of a bear or something…" her voice trailed off as she stared at him, the armored boy laughing nervously and avoiding eye contact with her on purpose.

"I guess I'm shy at the table…"

She snorted, "Yeah, I don't buy it!" reaching for his helmet, Beryl intended to pull the hunk of iron off his head to get a look at the boy inside. "Let me have a good look at you, I bet you're hiding a real cutie under that armor!"

Alphonse stuttered and attempted to keep her at a distance, but she kept wiggling past his polite defenses. "I really don't think that's a good idea Beryl," she didn't appear to be listening, more interested in taking apart his armor piece by piece until she found the boy, or rather lack thereof, inside. "I'm really insecure about my looks!" he tried.

"Come on," she urged, "You can't be _that_ ugly,"

It was when her fingers slipped beneath his helmet that Alphonse grabbed both of her wrists and roughly pulled them away, trapping her and successfully stopping her before she saw too much.

" _Please don't do that!_ " everything stopped. Beryl watched his expressionless face with blue and brown, imagining it twisting with discomfort if his voice was anything to go on.

He relaxed his grip on her wrists, and she didn't try to remove his helmet again.

They sat in silence on the couch while Edward helped Izumi with breakfast, Al passing the time by playing with the tabby in his lap, but that left Beryl in a state of awkwardness she couldn't shake. "S-sorry about that." the tips of her ears reddened in embarrassment, but Alphonse only hummed in acknowledgement.

"It's alright, I'm just… I don't really like taking my helmet off…" he explained. "It's… well… not everyone would like what's inside."

It was a cryptic thing to say, and Beryl didn't quite understand what it was supposed to mean, but she did understand what it meant to not like pieces of yourself. To want to hide or change them. She guessed his armor for him was her automail for her; something to hide or change what you didn't like.

They didn't speak much for the rest of the day.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to set when Edward threw the bundled up wad of cloth that was her washed cargo pants and yellow sweater into her face, telling her to get ready to head for the train in half an hour. Beryl didn't question why they were in such a hurry, she just changed into her worn clothes and left the green dress folded neatly on the bed. It was soft and she would miss it; it had pockets.

The sun was already setting when they left, becoming darker as the train pulled into view, Beryl stifled a yawn with her hand, still feeling the effects of being awake for six hours past her limits. The feeling of needing to look over her shoulder every five minutes had sadly not faded, and with the figure she'd seen watching her through her bedroom window, her paranoia had only increased. She felt tired, scared, and a little itchy like someone was constantly breathing on the crook where her neck met her back. It had become bad enough to when she saw the lights of the late train, a breath she must have been holding since it had first dropped them in this hole had been released like a weight off her shoulders.

As happy as she was to be leaving, the two dorks seemed in downer spirits however, not even looking up from the pavement to look at Sig unless he directly spoke to them. He was at least nice enough to walk them to the station, and Beryl had to admit, the knowledge that an enormous brick wall of a human being like Sig Curtis walking at her back was not uncomfortable. Especially with every stray shadow setting her on edge.

"Feel free to drop by whenever you're in town." He told them, his towering presence rivaled only by Alphonse.

The armored boy looked down at his feet, his voice betraying the shame he felt. "I'm not so sure about that…"

Sig's brow sorrowed in irritation, and his jaw clenched. "You _idiots_!"

The two visibly flinched, prompting Beryl to pay closer attention.

"You're so busy pouting that you can't see what your expulsion means," Expulsion? Oh, right, Izumi was their teacher. Why she would expel them, she had no idea, so she kept listening. "You aren't her students anymore, so now you're finally free to speak with Izumi as equals."

The brothers exchanged a thoughtful look, one that created a pit in Beryl's stomach; freedom was so close, if they backed out now she was done for.

Sig crossed his arms over his chest. "Unless of course, you're too chicken to try it…"

Edward smacked his palm against his forehead. "Damn!" Beryl chewed the inside of her mouth, tapping her foot against the concrete and fidgeting the way a dog does before a thunderstorm. "Al, we still haven't done what we came here to do!"

"Wait, what?!" the panic in her voice was barely hidden. "So we're not getting on that train?"

The brothers thanked Sig and took off down the road away from the boarding platform, Al giving Beryl a quick "Come on," before she nearly lost sight of them.

She quickly looked between them and the train, freedom so close but oh so expensive. Grinding her teeth and clenching her fists, she ran after them. "Damnit, what'd we even come down here for!"

"Don't let her kill you!" Sig called.

 _She can kill me as much as she wants if it gets me out of this crap hole town._

* * *

 ** _Yeah... I'm very tired. So sorry for the late update, work, class, you know, adult life kicking my ass. If the story is feeling a little slow, I urge you to push on, cause big things are a comin' and much in FMAB fashion, nothing is filler for the sake of filler. Every scene has a purpose even if it seems mundane in the moment. One of my favorite things about the series actually, but i'm just padding runtime now, so I bid you all adieu for now!_**


	10. Greed Always Leads to Downfall

**Chapter 10: Greed Always Leads to Downfall**

Showing up unannounced in the Curtis home had terrifying repercussions. Beryl learned this in a way completely fitting of what she knew of Izumi; the Elric dorks flew through the door, barely avoiding the knife thrown strait through the wall by their teacher. The damn thing nearly took her eye out on the other side, but with slight prompting from Alphonse, she stayed outside while they begged for their former teacher to give them a chance to speak freely.

She understood that what they talked about was none of her business, but it felt strange to be kept in the dark about most things regarding their shady forms of said business. The magic alchemy crap, the constant whispering when Beryl was around, even Al and his weird fixation with that suit of armor. All of it was weird and creepy and pointed to something they clearly didn't want her to be a part of.

Which was fine, she didn't want to get caught up in their mumbo-jumbo anyway, but what irked her was the fact that if she hindered them so much, why didn't they just let her rot in Rush Valley with Winry to pay them back? Why the hell did she get dragged into this?

Wandering off into the house, Beryl kicked the air and balled her fist around a wad of paper in her pants pocket. It was soft from years of wear, yet still rough and pointed in places from when she crumpled it up years ago.

She started walking up the stairs to kick off her boots in her indefinite room when the brothers emerged from the kitchen looking brighter than they did before. "Well that could've gone worse…" Edward sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his metal hand.

Alphonse acknowledged her as she began turning the corner up the steps, "Aren't you going to join us for dinner Beryl?" he asked, making her halt slightly at the top of the stairs.

She shifted her palm over the paper wad in her pocket, the slight movement not lost to either of them, before turning over her shoulder with a small smile. "No thanks, I'm pretty wiped from today… think I'll turn in early if it's alright with your Teach." Not waiting for a reply, she disappeared into the second story of the house.

Ed and Al watched her go, neither objecting as her door shut with a soft click a moment later. They exchanged a look before the eldest of the two voiced his thoughts. "Wonder what's eating her?"

The younger made a motion similar to shrugging, "I don't think she slept very well last night… and I kind of… yelled at her for trying to take off my helmet…"

"She _what?!_ "

Smoke just about sprung from his ears after hearing that, however Alphonse attempted to calm his brother as he so often did. Edward tended to blow a gasket when his baby brother's safety was threatened in any way shape or form despite him being sturdier than his elder sibling by far.

"I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it! She was just curious you know we haven't really explained a whole lot about our situation…"

The golden haired boy just sighed, "Did she _see_ anything?"

A breath of silence passed between them, and Al heard a small breeze from the open window pass throughout his hollow chest, reminding him of what Beryl could've seen. Or rather, what she would've looked for, but never found, and be horrified by.

He shook his head, "No…" Poking his fingers together nervously, Al danced around the question he'd been meaning to ask since Beryl's life debt was put in place. "But shouldn't we at least tell her what's going on? If the path we're on becomes more dangerous wouldn't it be smarter if Beryl at least knows our situation?"

Edward's fist clenched at his side.

"She's a rat with a bad attitude who nearly got you killed; first the car, and then that storm, I don't know what I would've done if that rock slab you made from mud gave out and you fell… what if the rain washed away your blood seal? Beryl at least owes you for that…"

"Then why don't we _tell_ her that?" Al insisted. "Keeping these things from her could be dangerous Ed, those people from the Fifth Laboratory… we still don't know what they meant by _sacrifice_ , and we shouldn't be dragging an innocent person into our problems!"

"Keeping you safe and getting our bodies back is my top priority Al! This is her hometown right? So problem solved, we'll tell her tomorrow that her debt is off and that'll be the end of it… nothing else matters right now."

Alphonse sighed, seeming to accept that answer.

"Alright, maybe Teacher will let her stay here in exchange for work?"

Ed laughed at the thought. "Yeah, if she doesn't kill her for stealing food first."

The two shared a laugh before returning to help Izumi with dinner, comfortable silence surrounding the warm kitchen with a softness they hadn't felt since before that night nearly five years ago. Al absentmindedly scratched the space between his helmet and neck where Beryl's fingers brushed across his blood seal as she attempted to pry open his armor. It was a light touch, barely considered a touch at all, but for a brief moment, he'd felt the heat from her fingertips.

* * *

Turns out that all the, _if you go to bed early_ stuff your parents teach you is a load f bull. Beryl fell asleep at _8 pm_ the night before and _still_ woke up feeling like she'd been caressed by the crypt-keeper. She'd always been a light sleeper, being kept on her toes for most of her life, but this was getting ridiculous. Sleeping restlessly for two nights in a row was doing stuff to her brain; weird stuff. Stuff like bumping into Alphonse and hearing his armor echo like a metal drum, she shook it off and forgot about it as soon as he apologized like a flustered preteen. Although, Beryl supposed he _was_ a flustered preteen, with how much he towered over her it was a challenge to remember that they were the same age.

Al accidently kicked an empty can on the street and she almost jumped clean out of her skin, yelping like a provoked alley cat. Her arms tightened around the grocery bag she was carrying, making the brown paper crumple around the items inside.

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Alphonse muttered softly, a larger bag tucked into his even larger arms. Beryl had gotten pushed into helping him pick out dinner at the market, since Edward had to speak to Izumi about _important alchemy stuff_ , whatever that was.

Kicking the same can herself as if to prove it didn't scare her as much as he thought, she breathed out through her nose. "It's fine, let's just finish this shopping and go back to the house."

Pepper rubbed his furry body against her leg, purring loudly as though the vibrations from his belly would settle her nerves. She appreciated the effort, but it did little to lower the hairs on her neck. Silently agreeing to head back to the Curtis house, Beryl followed Alphonse, opting to walk along beside him with her lost thoughts leaving her open to wandering off without realizing it.

"If you don't mind me asking, what made you want to leave Dublith? When Ed and I lived here with Teacher, it was always a really nice town." He asked, looking around at the townspeople going about their business. A slightly familiar ginger head passed them on his way to the bakery, but Beryl crushed her urge to trip him and focused on Al instead.

She sighed through her nose, "Towns are only _nice_ if you have money to buy the nice things they have, otherwise they're all the same… plus Rush Valley has way warmer winters; less frostbite." Keeping her reasoning simple would keep him from sniffing around too much, and the reason she gave made enough sense; she _did_ choose Rush Valley for its dirt-cheap automail and snow-less winters. Making snow angels and throwing snowballs was a lot less fun without a warm coat.

Al gave pause before he replied concern edging his echoing voice. "I'm… sorry to hear that."

A shrug was all she gave in return, giving him a sweeping look from head to toe in an attempt to change the subject. "What about you?" He actually flinched a little bit at her inquiry, so she pushed further. "What's your story? Since we're asking each other those kinda' questions now,"

"W-well, the thing about that is… it's kind of a long story…"

"I've got time."

Seeing that she wouldn't let up until her boredom was satiated, Alphonse gave in. "My brother and I made a mistake when we were younger, and we became state alchemists to try and fix it."

His answer was curt and short, heavily giving the vibe that that was all he wanted to say, but Beryl wasn't satisfied with his answer. Big fancy alchemists like them must screw up fiercely if at all, and the more she dug out from them the better chance she had of gaining their trust and ditching them at the perfect moment.

"What'd you do?"

"I really shouldn't say…"

"Come on…" she droned. "You can tell me, I'm a real good secrets-keeper…" she poked his chest and cupped a hand over her lips as if whispering a secret to him.

Al placed his large hand on one of her shoulders, gentle but giving her a firm squeeze while balancing the bags in one arm. "I said no, I don't want to talk about it." Beryl blinked at his unyielding voice, at a loss for her usual snarky backtalk. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd stop pushing me just because you're bored, and respected my privacy."

Not enjoying the feeling of smallness from the way he spoke down to her, Beryl pulled away from him and gnawed the inside of her cheek irritably. "Fine, don't tell me."

Remembering the bag of groceries in her hands, and disliking the weight of it to add to her embarrassment, Beryl shoved it into Alphonse's arms with a huff. He took it but looked at her confusedly as she walked on ahead of him, but in the opposite direction of the house.

"I'll meet up with you later, got some stuff to do by myself."

She heard him sigh within his armor, "Beryl…"

"See you back at the house." She didn't give him any opportunity to stop her, as she scurried off disappearing behind a building corner into the market.

If Edward and his dorky little brother wanted to keep her in the dark, that was _fine_ by her. But being called out on her behavior towards them just pissed her off even more.

* * *

After about the twelfth right turn she'd taken to evade Alphonse, Beryl kicked an empty can hard enough to bounce it off the wall with an obnoxious clang.

"Curse you Edward Elric!" she spat. Everything was just so… _frustrating!_ All for what? 2500 cenz?! Letting out a loud groan and knotting her fingers in her hair, Beryl cursed at the ground she stood on. What was 2500 cenz to a state alchemist like Edward Elric anyway?! She'd seen him flash his pocket watch for free rides in almost everything from transport to board, which begged the million-cenz question…

 _Why was she still here?!_

Wanting to throw something else, she picked up a rock from the pavement and chucked it as hard as she could, hitting a metal trash bin loudly enough to scare off the nearby alley cats with annoyed hissing and growls. She sneered right back at them, flopping back against the brick wall of a general store and sliding down until her butt met the dirt.

 _I hate this place, I never should have come back here, I should have jumped off that train and tested my luck with the dessert, anything is better than this crap-fest…_

A soft bump against her hand broke her train of thought, drawing her focus to Pepper, the feline having followed her despite his new favorite place on Al's shoulder. He rubbed his ears against her palm before pushing up under her chin, purring all the while like a rumbling car engine.

Against all the anxiety she felt, her pet's efforts successfully made her smile. Beryl sighed, scratching behind Pepper's ears, "Why did I have to step on your tail? We'd still be living our life of luxury in Rush Valley if I hadn't…"

The tabby meowed, having long forgiven the new crook in his tail from her heavy boot damaging the muscle tissue within. Blue and brown eyes blinked, pushing herself off the ground and brushing off her pants, Pepper taking refuge across her shoulders like a silken shawl. Thinking about the incident that day left her with a feeling of guilt in her stomach; if Alphonse hadn't stopped that car in its tracks, she'd no doubt be six-feet under. And, she supposed Edward didn't _have_ to fix the man's destroyed vehicle to get him off her back for jumping into the street, or at least to keep Al out of trouble.

As much as they had screwed her over, they had also stuck their neck out for her on more than one occasion. Winry too if you counted the free repairs she did on her automail; Beryl fiddled with the dials admiring how fluid they felt in her ears compared to the pinching patches of rust and grime that had built up before.

 _Maybe those dorks aren't_ so _bad…_ she thought, lightly toeing an anthill in the asphalt as she mulled over her thoughts. _I did go too far with Al didn't I…_ she was so aggravated with her lack of answers that she'd dug herself into a deeper hole in the process of getting them, and she was fairly certain that the younger Elric's silent disappointment felt worse than his brother's boasting displays of anger.

Slapping her cheeks and promising the air that she would try to make it up t Al before the day was up, Beryl turned out of the alley and moved to make her way back to the Curtis residence.

But something stopped her in her tracks, and hand on her shoulder as rough and calloused as the brick wall she'd been leaning against not a minute earlier.

"Terribly sorry little lady, but it seems I'm a bit lost and don't know my way around, could you point me towards Curtis Meats?" a velvety smooth voice asked, gentlemanly but cunning as if he wanted much more than what he was outwardly asking for.

"Oh… it's right over…"

He cut her off, not that her meek-sounding reply was much to cut in the first place. Something about his voice set her on edge, and his hold on her shoulder prevented her from turning to look at his face. "Please forgive me, but did I hear you talking about Edward Elric earlier? The state alchemist isn't he? Who can perform alchemy without a transmutation circle?"

Beryl had little to no recollection of what most of those words meant, but by the swelling curiosity in his voice, it must've been impressive. "I-I guess, I honestly don't know him all that well."

She tried to wiggle her shoulder out of his grip, but he squeezed tighter, pinching the muscles that connected her arm to her body in an uncomfortable way. "Oh but you're living with him and his brother, the suit of armor, aren't you."

A chill travelled up her spine that she hadn't felt in three years. "How… did you know that?"

The hand on her shoulder slowly slid along her skin as the man brushed his sharp nails against the flesh of her neck, coiling his fingers around her throat and squeezing lightly when she tried to wiggle again.

"I don't mean to be rude, but it seems unwise for a young girl like you to be wandering around without supervision…" he squeezed tighter, and breathing became more difficult as fear began to set in. This guy wasn't right, and she reached up to try and pry his fingers loose, but they didn't budge, and she couldn't hold her breath forever. "Some people might even try to take advantage of a sweet-looking girl like you, but I wouldn't worry too much, the best kind of people demand the _finer things_." He hissed in her ear, using his free hand to turn down the dial on her left ear so she couldn't hear a thing out of it.

A flash of terror slithered down Beryl's throat as the familiarity of the man's voice finally registered in her memory, and she forced herself to look up at him past his tinted sunglasses and menacing grin.

His pointed teeth glinted in the sun, as violet scorched into brown and blue like a predator staring into the eyes of its prey. "Why the long face Flea-Bag?"

Tears of fear burned as they slid down her cheeks, Greed brushing a few away with his rough thumb. "Don't worry, I've got you." The hunger in his voice instilled more dread in her chest, no matter how much he tried to make his words sound reassuring.

Beryl swallowed a lump in her throat, the hand on her neck not loosening his grip, only tightening it.

"Now… _tell your big brother how you've been."_

* * *

 ** _Holy SH*T it's been a month since I last updated! College is kicking my ass and I haven't even had a single test yet. Well, ass-kicking is an exaggeration, its actually really great, i'm just sad I haven't been writing all that much or designing or any of that stuff I actually like. But I digress. For those who've read Insomniacs, (if you haven't then go now) if you got that little reference when Al felt Beryl's touch through his blood seal, it was in relation to when Delilah touched his soul through the seal. I thought it was a cute and interesting idea, so I tweeked it a bit. it won't be a reacurring theme, at least not at this point in time, but I thought referencing the work would be fun, and it was! But, shit is about to hit the fan of Truth here next chapter, as Greed gives Beryl a... "stern talking to." it won't be rapey don't worry, I don't think Greed is that kinda guy, but I've already said too much so... *exits gayly* I bid you good day!_**


	11. A Fox and a Rat

**Chapter 11: A Fox and a Rat**

Alphonse was quickly realizing how stubborn Beryl could be. When he'd returned to the house with the groceries by himself, Izumi had vigorously questioned him on her whereabouts, forcing him to spill about their argument and how Beryl had said nothing about her destination before taking off. Despite the concern written on her face, Izumi only sighed before telling Al to give her time, and to remember that his and Edward's experiences made them more mature than most others their age. Beryl would need time to cool down before eventually lumbering back home.

He didn't quite like that plan, but given her actions in the short time they'd known each other, Al had agreed to give her some space.

Instead of worry needlessly, he chose to pass the time by sweeping the outside of the shop, letting his mind wander as he diligently did his chores.

Chores that were interrupted when a crumpled wad of paper bounced up against the bristles of his broom. Al paused, looking around for the person who threw it, but finding the streets around him nearly empty. So who could've thrown it? Gaining his interest, he picked the ball up, unfolding it and smoothing it out with his large metal hands. He found words scribbled messily across the page, reading them once, then twice for clarification, before he crumpled the paper once more and lifted his helmet slightly and dropping the evidence into his hollow body.

Alphonse, however, missed the hooded figure retreating over the rooftop with a smile on his face.

* * *

 _The Devil's Nest._

The dingy old bar just outside of Dublith's version of a red-light district, Ed and Al took shortcuts around it as kids when Teacher demanded more supplies, but after the youngest Elric gained a swollen red cheek from one of the hoodlum kids around town, they started taking a different path home. The smell was always the marker of where they were in town, the smell of old wood and fermenting booze that burned the nostrils. Though he could no longer smell it, the memory of the smell as well as the three intimidating people outside the bar brought Al to a halt in the road.

A man with a sword at his back and a rather pointed nose gave him an equally sharp look. "There you are," he greeted, as if he and Alphonse had known each other for years and were having a warm reunion. "About time."

The paper ball in his fist crinkled as he unfurled it. " _We know your secret, come to the Devil's Nest if you want to talk…_ I'm guessing you're the people that wrote this note?" he kept his voice unwavering in the face of the uneasiness he felt.

A woman with short blonde hair and a tattoo that ran up the length of her arm and neck to her chin smiled, cocking her hip but saying nothing as her companion stepped forward. "That's right, and we know _a lot_ about you,"

"Well that's good, cause there's a lot about me that I don't know."

The man extended his arms in a welcoming gesture, "Then I'm the guy you want to talk to, why you come with us?"

Al bowed his head in an innocently submissive manner, "But, my teacher always said I'm not supposed to go with strangers." While true, Izumi had also told him to never let himself be overpowered, and to use the combat skills she'd taught him to make opponents rethink underestimating the boy despite his age.

His timid voice seemed to catch the man off guard, as he looked up at Al with a confused look on his face. "Uh… how old are you?"

"Fourteen."

The shorter man scoffed, "Well come on then! I'd say fourteen is old enough to think for yourself kid." He explained, waving his hand around dismissively. "You gotta start acting like an adult and taking some risks,"

Al visibly brightened. "You think so? I should think for myself?"

" _Yes!_ And you can start by coming with me…" Alphonse silenced him with a hard knee to the jaw, knocking him to the ground with a crash.

"So I thought it over for myself, and I decided that I should just _make_ you tell me what I want to know."

The man was quick to jump back to his feet as the armored boy stalked towards him, reaching for the sword at his belt and pulling it from its sheath in an offensive stance. "So you wanna do this by force,"

His knees bent as he began to lunge towards Al, but the boy was quicker as he slammed his palm into the man's face, breaking his nose under his hand in a spray of blood. The man darted his arm forward, the sword slipping between Al's helmet and the rest of his metal body as a short upwards snap detached his head from his shoulders. His vision went black as he felt someone land on his shoulders, holding him steady as they easily slipped inside him. "Sorry to drop in," a female voice soothed as she slithered inside his chest.

It was a feeling Alphonse had never experienced, having a person inside his armor, and it could only be described as uncomfortable and weird. He panicked as he tried to grapple with the woman wiggling in his chest, but she had the advantage of sight. "Hey!" she scolded, "Be a good boy and _hold still_!"

Her arms slipped into his, halting his protests by binding his arms from within, Al tried to use sheer strength to break free of her, but the woman was stronger than she felt. "So, what's it like having someone control you from inside?" she asked, a tease at the edge of her voice.

"You can't stop me from moving!" he yelled, clenching his fists as he tried to regain control of his body. "And you're not strong enough to hold this up forever!"

She chuckled from within the empty space of his chest, "You're right, but all I'm trying to do is slow you down!"

"For _my turn_."

Unable to see the source of the voice over his shoulder, Al swung blindly for their head, only to be blocked and pushed to the ground by the stranger's weight. Inwardly panicking as his mobility was taken away, he continued to struggle, attempting to pull his arm free, but the man had twisted it towards him successfully pinning him down.

The clatter of his helmet being tossed away reached his nonexistent ears. "You're making this way too hard kid."

None of this was good. What did they want with him? What was their goal? Did it have something to do with Ed? Alphonse didn't have any answers and it put even further on edge; that woman's overly fluid movements, the short man's sharp canines, and the towering stranger's brute weight, none of it was normal. "You people aren't human, are you?!" he demanded.

"Good guess, they're Chimeras." A new voice sneered, dripping with callous snark and overzealousness as he gave Al's helmet a good kick. "And they happen to work for _me._ "

He didn't need to see to hear the smirk in the man's voice, his cocky snicker feeling like ice in his hollow stomach. Where was Ed when you needed him?

* * *

Alphonse had been sitting in silence as the supposed chimeras stood guard over him. No one tried to speak to him, only examining him from afar with the occasional curious sniff. He stared at them in return, and aside from the woman still sitting in his chest, he had looked them all over at least a dozen times. No matter how much he took them apart with his eyes, it was too unbelievable to him. Chimeras. The image of a little girl and her dog was enough to pull him back to reality, the reality that chimeras that talk are impossible. A chimera that looks like a human is even more impossible, it just doesn't happen.

Nina was proof enough of that.

After another minute, the man came back, the snarky one with the icy voice, and now that Al could see, it was easy to understand that this man was the alpha male of the room. He stood tall and demanded respect without saying a word, a permanent smirk etched into his face as he looked over everyone around him, including Alphonse, like they were a priceless treasure just for him.

Al tensed as the man approached him, but he only laughed. "Relax kid, I just wanna take a peek inside is all."

The fact that his bound wrists and stiff body forbade him from flinching away from the man removing his helmet set him on edge even more. He was in unfamiliar territory, unable to move, and currently unable to get out.

The man whistled as he examined the hollow space of his body, not including the blond woman inside. "Whoa, cool… you really are hollow…" he dropped Al's helmet back into place, flashing him a smile. "The name's Greed, and I wanna be your friend."

"Then why don't you tell me what you people really are?"

That seemed to give the man, Greed, pause.

"You guys aren't chimeras; it's impossible, no one has ever made a chimera that can talk." Memories of Nina's twisted, animal-like body and empty eyes made him clench his metal fists.

Greed laughed, "You can't believe everything the government tells you kid, you've got all the proof you need right inside you." He tapped a heavy finger against Al's metal shoulder, smirking as the echo reached his ears. "The girl in there is part snake."

He gestured to the large man in the corner, "And the big guy is…" he paused, "Roa, what were you made with… cow?" the large stranger nodded. "We've also got a lizard, a crocodile, and the little guy over there tends to lift his leg when he pees."

" _Only once!"_ he grunted, grinding his teeth and growling.

"You're part dog?" to describe what Alphonse was feeling didn't feel like shock or horror, rather a mix of the two combined with scientific wonder.

The shorter stranger scratched the back of his neck, smiling almost in pride. "Yep, it's actually not so bad." He admitted.

Al could only stare in silence. Every ounce of research he'd ever studied on chimeras ran through his mind; that making one even remotely close to a human in appearance or function was unheard of and impossible. "Impossible… it's just not possible… who would even be capable of making one?"

Greed looked him in the eye, but Alphonse could not see his eyes in return. "The military."

The gasp that left him was enough for Greed to be convinced that he believed him.

"There's a shadow world beneath yours, even _you're_ less uncommon than they are, and to be honest I had some trouble tracking you down." He gave Al's helmet another tap. "If it wasn't for my little sewer rat, you'd have probably slipped right through my fingers." A sneer twisted his lips as he snapped his fingers.

He gave Roa a single nod before the man left through the only door in the room, giving Al the perfect view of even more chimeras on the other side. They were grunting and laughing as they repeatedly kicked someone mashed into the dirt, aiming for their stomach and face and landing most of their hits despite them tightly covering their head.

Roa grabbed them by the scruff of their shirt and threw them into the wall the armored boy sat against as if they weighed nothing.

Al gasped as he recognized the dirty yellow sweater, the newly washed wool patched by another layer of filth and spots of blood from Beryl's nosebleed.

"Gotta say Flea-Bag, you really outdid yourself this time." Greed laughed as he grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged her head up. She was sporting multiple bruises and a train of blood pooling down from her nostrils, but she still grit her teeth in annoyance. "If it wasn't for you, I probably would've never found this kid, so thanks, you're the best."

He dropped her head and she flopped back down with a whimper.

"Beryl!" Alphonse struggled against the woman inside him, fighting just to turn his head, to make sure Beryl was at least still conscious. "Why are you doing this?! She didn't do anything!"

Greed let loose a roaring laugh, clutching his stomach and wiping a tear of mirth from his eyes. "Didn't _do anything_ , that's a good one kid… wow, she really didn't spill a single thing did she?" he reached forward, pinching her cheek and tugging it affectionately regardless of her bruised cheek.

"Shut up!" Beryl jerked away from him, lashing out and punching him in the jaw with a violent crack. His head did not even turn, but she clutched her hand in obvious pain, Greed giving a smirk before walking back.

"Aww hit a nerve did I? Did you make some new friends while big brother was at work? Or did you screw them over too?" Beryl's glare turned soft before she stared down at her boots, almost ashamed.

Anger built up in Alphonse's gut, wanting to stand between them to protect Beryl and to get answers as to why they were here. "What are you talking about?"

A moment of silent understanding passed between Beryl and Greed, and he chuckled. "Nothing to say? That's precious." He gave Al an almost pitying look, "You see kid, this little _rat_ works for me just like the rest of these guys, but the thing is… a while back she decided to run away with quite a bit of my cash, and I don't appreciate being s _tolen from!"_

He gripped her by the neck and hoisted her above him, pinning her to the wall as her feet dangled off the ground. She choked and tried to kick him, but he did not seem to feel a thing. Al panicked, "Stop it!"

His pleas went ignored as he struggled harder against Martel, but she held strong, "Be quiet, you couldn't stop him even if you _could_ move." She said, her voice betraying the fear she had for what her boss would do.

Greed tightened his fist, cutting off the girl's air and preventing her from crying out. "I dragged you out of that shithole, feed you, clothe you, _and_ raise you… and you repay me by stealing my money and _running away?!_ "

He gripped her harder before throwing her across the room, her sweater catching on the corner of a wooden crate before it tore away from her left shoulder, exposing the large bruise forming there.

"Honestly kid, that hurts my feelings!" he stomped his boot on top of her hand, grinning when she coughed up a howl of pain.

"Leave her alone!"

" _Be quiet!_ "

Beryl pushed against the floor, still trying to stand, but Greed was a lot stronger than she was. "And you think, you can just come _back here_?!" he swung his heavy leather boot into her stomach, making her gag and choke, but her empty stomach only wrung painfully as she tightly held her abdomen.

Alphonse pulled against his chained wrists, fighting Martel's grip on his insides as he struggled to get free. " _Stop!_ You'll kill her!" he didn't know anything about Beryl, but he knew she was a good person despite being rough around the edges. She didn't deserve to be beaten to death just for stealing, no one did.

Greed leaned down to look her in the eye, "Look at that, you really _did_ make some new friends, that's adorable… not that he'll be able to help you."

Her brown and blue gaze was clouded, but still able to aim a nasty glare as she spat a mouthful of blood into his face. "I don't need his help…" she groaned, her voice sounding like a jagged piece of metal being dragged against the sidewalk. "And I never needed _yours_!"

His smile didn't waver even when his tongue darted out to lick the blood from his cheek. "That so? Don't forget kid, that I _gave_ you what you have," his finger tapped against her automail aids. "And if I wanted… I could take it away too."

Beryl started screaming when Greed started pulling on her automail, _hard._ He showed no mercy as he started ripping apart the pieces of metal that let her hear, that made up most of her inner ears. Alphonse started yelling, begging for him to stop, to leave her alone. Even his subordinates looked extremely uncomfortable around them while the girl they all helped raise was being tortured on the floor.

She suddenly went silent as her right ear shut off completely, nothing but the ringing from the shock and the absent white noise on her right side filled the empty space. Greed held up the bloody, twisted piece of metal, examining it almost curiously before he gave it a bored shrug and tossed it away. Smaller pieces of the automail still sat in Beryl's ear, but the red mess masked most of it.

He wiped his bloody hands on his leather pants, sighing like a disappointed parent scolding a child. "Didn't have to be that way kid, you're still _my possession_ , don't waste my kindness again."

Beryl clutched her right ear, red threads slipping past her fingers as she glared at him. She grit her teeth and refused to cry, no matter how many pain-filled tears burned behind her eyelids, she wouldn't cry in front of Greed. He wouldn't care if she did anyway.

"Now that that's taken care of, let's you and me have a talk hm?"

Alphonse wanted to punch him in the face as hard as he could; he'd never felt such anger directed to another person before, if Greed really raised Beryl like he implied, then how could he hurt her that way? How could anyone hurt their child in that way, by ripping out their automail. Had he hurt her before? Is that why she didn't want to come back to Dublith. He felt sick at the possibility that he and Ed had possibly hand delivered Beryl back to her abusers.

He needed to get out of this place, and make sure Beryl never had to be afraid of these monsters again.

He'd make sure she was safe.

* * *

 ***Twiddles fingers villainously* Let the shipping begin!**

 **WOW! Been a while huh guys?! A lot has been happening to me since I last updated: I got a job, started school, started therapy, lost my job, parents are splitting up, i'm moving in February, etc. etc... Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me and accept this chapter as a gift. i'll try to update soon but no promises, but stay sharp kids! Chao!**


	12. Viciously Avaricious

**Chapter 12: Viciously Avaricious**

"Why are you doing this?" Greed cocked his head at Alphonse's question, almost confused by his words. "It's not like I'm going to tell you anything, even if I knew what you wanted."

The tall, shadowed man scoffed, "Oh come on, don't be like that, we're just talking aren't we? Nothing wrong with a friendly chat."

His fists clenched in his lap, the metal creaking with the force of his anger. "Considering what you did to _my friend_ , I don't think friendly is the word you're looking for."

Beryl glanced up from her spot next to Al, a rag pressed to her still bleeding ear. Every once in a while she'd sniff and wipe her nose with her sleeve, the blood vessels connecting her nose to her ear having been torn with her automail, giving her a nasty-looking nosebleed. "Your… friend?"

She hadn't realized she'd spoken until Al turned away from Greed to look at her. His helmet nodded, and she almost smiled if it weren't for Greed grabbing his head and forcing Alphonse to face him once more. "Let's save the cutesy stuff for later."

Al's voice was cold when he spoke. "What do you want from me anyway?"

"Like I said kid, you're a rarity in the underworld, even rarer than me and I'm one of a kind!" Greed held up his hand, the scarlet image of a winged snake consuming itself by the tail sparking familiarity in both Al and Beryl. " _I'm a Homunculus._ "

His wolfish grin sent a shiver down her spine, the glint in his eye sparking brighter when Alphonse repeated his words with both awe and disbelief in his voice. "A homunculus?"

"Yep, no joke."

He remembered reading alchemy books with Ed in their father's study, brushing past the section on the homunculus. He remembered reading it, how it described a human being made from alchemy, but also asking why it was possible when the basis of alchemy was to not make a human being.

It was because a homunculus was not a person at all. They were a thing, an artificial being that was meant to look human. It was never proven possible to create one, even less so to look as human as Greed did.

"You're wrong! A homunculus is just a theory, nobody's made one!"

With a sigh, Greed removed his sunglasses, his violet irises glinting in the lamplight. "Guess I'll have to prove it to you."

Uninterested until this point, and having no idea what on earth a _homunculus_ was supposed to be, Beryl looked up at the man who raised her as his lips curled upwards. She saw Roa raise his hammer up high, one of the ends shaved down to a deadly point, and he swung it heavily towards Greed.

"Roa!" her warning came too late as Roa's hammer embedded itself into Greed's head, but the sheer force of his swing was too strong, so his skull very closely _exploded_ under the larger man's strength. His entire head above his lower jaw was reduced to a mess of blood and chunks of brain and bone on the floor.

The sound that left Beryl was a horrified mix of a scream and a gag. She clamped her hands over her mouth, feeling it fill with bile before swallowing it down. It felt like lead in her twisted stomach as it burned her throat going down.

He was _dead_.

"Why would you do that to him?!" Alphonse seemed to match her horror. Roa did not react _or_ respond to what he just did, _none_ of them did. Beryl was the only one having some kind of reaction to Greed's death, because there was no doubt he was dead. Half his head was _gone,_ so why wasn't anyone at least a little _surprised_ by that.

His answer came when a red light caught his attention; sparks of scarlet electricity started generating from Greed's wound. Beryl nervously peeked open her eyes at the light, the blue and brown orbs widening when he reached up a hand, his forefinger extended to ask for another minute. His upper body jolted up as more red light filled her vision. His upper jaw reformed from the bone onward, muscle strung itself back together like bloody threads, and within minutes Greed was cracking his neck and wiping the string of blood from his mouth.

"That's _one_ time I've died!"

Her eyes burned as tears of pure fear trailed down her cheeks, cutting paths in the filth on her face. She couldn't move, or speak, or do anything but stare at the literal dead man walking and talking as if nothing had even happened. _What… the hell?!_

"It can't be…" Alphonse whispered, in awe but unable to display it physically.

Greed's smile showed his teeth, like a wolf stalking his prey. "Don't you get it? There's no such thing as impossible." He pressed the pad of his finger against the spike above Al's eyes, "You should know that better than anyone… seeing as you're just a _soul in a suit of armor_."

Alphonse fell silent, feeling his violet eyes burning on him, as if looking through his armor to the nothingness that filled it. Where a body should be was only a seal drawn in his brother's blood, every kind of impossible was either within him or staring him in the face in the form of the homunculus Greed.

"How did you know about that?"

Beryl stared at him too, only her shock had not faded. Al felt a stab of guilt; neither him nor Ed had said a word about any of this, she had no idea what was going on or why Greed was after them, but she had been dragged into their mess anyway. The Devil's Nest gang had wanted her regardless, but maybe if the brothers had told her the truth, they could've protected her from them.

That made it his fault… Beryl was hurt and in danger because of him.

A shadow fell over Greed's face, his eyes almost glowing with hunger. "People like to talk in the shadow world… and now that I've got you where I want you, I want to know what it's like to have a body at will _never die_." When Alphonse didn't answer, he pressed further. "Transmitting a soul like that isn't an easy thing to do… sounds like a way to get immortality to me, am I wrong?"

Al did not know what to say. What _could_ he say? As an alchemist it was his passion to understand alchemic mysteries, to put names on the undiscovered and to prove the impossible possible. Now the previously impossible was looking right at him with malicious intent, and he did not know what to do. All he could do was be silent and listen, find a weak point that would allow him and Beryl to escape. He got them both into this mess, so he would get them out.

Greed held up his hand, Alphonse seeing for the first time his tattoo up close. It was a winged lizard consuming itself by the tail… an _ouroboros_. A symbol used in alchemy to describe something infinite. Something that had no end; in other words, it represented eternal life. "You see… I'm Greed, that means I'm _greedy_." He explained. "I want everything you could possibly imagine… I want money and power and women, sex, status, glory… _I demand the finer things_ , and I _crave_ eternal life." He clenched his fist as if holding something he wasn't going to give up.

His helmet tilted curiously, "Aren't you already immortal?"

The larger man shrugged, still crouched in front of Al, "Well, I was put together a bit sturdier than most, I've been alive about 200 years after all…" he gestured to himself. "But I'm not exactly immortal."

He stood, his hands planted firmly on his hips as his grin spread wider on his face. "And now that I've spilled my guts to you, it's _your turn_. Tell me about your body… and you'd better not lie."

A stretch of silence filled the space between them. Alphonse stared down at his chained wrists, listening to Beryl's uneven breathing next to him and hoping she hadn't already gone into shock. She had been so quiet throughout it all that it was almost possible to forget her presence. However, with how bad she was injured, he did not forget for long. Al gave her a small glance, rivets of blood running from her nose as she pressed the already soaked rag to her ear. He knew head wounds bleed more despite not being life threatening, but her entire inner ear had been _ripped out_ ; she needed to see a real doctor, and soon.

The sound of a sigh echoed in his helmet, and Martel spoke up from inside him. "You'd better tell him; you don't want to be take apart and examined, do you?"

As unpleasant as that sounded, it was not his greatest concern right now. "It's no use," he admitted. "I don't remember how I got this body, and I'm also not the one who performed the transmutation… so I couldn't tell you anything even if I wanted to."

Nothing deterred him, Greed only shrugged. "Then I'll just ask the person who _did_ perform the transmutation." His fanged canines glinted with his hunger, "Know where I can find them?"

Alphonse held his eyes before looking down at his lap. "Well…"

* * *

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Her entire right ear was just an empty appendage now. The automail that Winry worked hard to repair, the device that let a dumb little girl hear the world again. Half of it was gone now, not to mention it hurt like hell. A rag held to her ear was hardly the band aid that she needed, and her nose wouldn't stop bleeding either, but it felt like that was the least of her worries.

Alphonse didn't have a body.

She had no clue what to make of those words like transmutation, or homunculus. What she did know was that she'd watched with her own eyes as Greed's head got knocked off before growing back as if nothing had even happened. Beryl had seen a man die and get back up. For once in her life she had nothing to say.

And Alphonse didn't have a body!

He was a soul in a suit of armor, Greed had said. He was a person wearing a bulky suit of metal; he was like a ghost possessing an object. Was Al dead? Why didn't he have a body? Was that why he never ate, or why Beryl had never seen him sleep? Was he even human? Or was he like Greed, somet _hing_ that couldn't die.

She felt so stupid. Why did she come back? She could've run a long time ago but she didn't, because she actually convinced herself that Ed and Al weren't terrible company. She'd been swayed by Winry's kindness and the overwhelming fact that she owed them a life debt, and that she had to pay it back.

Alphonse leaned over slightly, unable to move much other than the light touch of his metal thigh against Beryl's knee. "Beryl?" he whispered. She wasn't proud of it, but she flinched when his voice reached her left ear but not her right.

Suddenly the echo in his voice and in his chest made a lot more sense.

When she didn't answer him, Al bowed his head, possibly the only movement he could get away with… what with Martel inside his chest. "I wanted to apologize," his voice was so soft, speaking so that only the brunette could hear. "We never meant for any of this to happen, especially not to you… but I promise I'll get you out of here, trust me."

Those words sounded like gunfire in Beryl's still-functioning left ear. _Trust him…_

" _Trust you?"_ she hissed, surprising Alphonse. "You want me to _trust you_ after the shit I've been through?! You and your dipshit brother drag me back to this hell without a single explanation and I'm supposed to trust you _now_?!" the fury in her heterochromatic eyes was white-hot, boiling like molten metal beneath the surface. Her teeth ground together, and when she turned to him, there was unbridled hatred in her expression.

Al's voice was so soft and gentle, it made her doubt if she'd even heard him speak at all. "You're right… we never should have taken you away from Rush Valley, everything that's happened is our fault… I'm so sorry Beryl…" If it was possible for hollow armor to shed tears and cry, Alphonse probably would right now. It gave Beryl slight pause to hear the shame in his voice, but she pushed it aside. One stupid apology wouldn't undo the anger and betrayal she felt.

She turned away from him again, "Get me out of here… then _maybe_ I'll _think_ about forgiving you."

It wasn't as if he even knew what else to say; this was _his fault_. There was no argument about it, he and Ed had dragged an innocent civilian into their problems and they had no excuse. His brother had said she owed them a life debt, but Beryl was only an orphan who grew up on the streets, she didn't know a lick of alchemy or even how to defend herself normally. She was just a girl… and they'd put her in danger, they'd tied her to them and all of their problems.

Al clenched his chained fists. "I will, I promise."

"Daw shucks, isn't that just adorable…" Greed flashed his toothy grin to the two preteens, making Beryl cower away from him, still terrified by what she had seen. He ignored her and pressed a finger against Al's forehead spike. "As for you, Bido is off fetching your big bro, and if he doesn't tell me what I want I'll just kill you both, sound good?"

Despite the threat, Alphonse didn't flinch. "Trust me, Ed knows more about alchemy than I do, he'll tell you what you want to know." The challenge in his voice was hidden behind false confidence, but it did reassure Beryl that Al had some semblance of a plan at least. He was hiding something from Greed, and the idea of the brothers sticking it to this asshole made her smile.

"We'll see." There was a growl behind Greed's threat, and Beryl wanted nothing more than to disappear into the floor.

 _This sucks_ , she thought. _This is suck incarnate…_

A loud string of bangs and crashes sounded beyond the steel door, grabbing the attention of nearly everyone in the room. Greed and the other chimeras fell silent as they stared at the door, listening to what sounded like a struggle on the other side. Al and Beryl exchanged a look; she looked confused and scared, but Al gave her a single nod. It didn't have a meaning, but the feeling in her gut told her to feel reassured by his vacant red eyes.

The lock on the door snapped like a twig as Bido fell to the floor in a heap of limbs including his bruised tail. He sported a black eye as well as a swollen bump on his forehead, and he whimpered as a black leather boot squished down on his face.

Beryl and Alphonse both took in a breath of relief as that golden braid walked into the Devil's Nest.

"Ed!"

* * *

 **Again, soooooo sorry about the wait, but i hope you enjoyed chapter 1 of The Thief of Ba Sing Se! i've reached a tiny block in chapter 2 but i know exactly where i want to take it. It IS Zuko x OC but i noticed how a lot of those kinda shit on Mai a bit, which seems unfair, and i'm not saying that just because she's my wife. My wife doesn't get shit on in my fanfiction. Anyway, enjoy chapter 12, because shit hits the fan in chapter 13! Ciao!**


	13. To See the World in a Grain of Sand

**Chapter 13: To See the World in a Grain of Sand**

" _Ed!_ "

His furrowed brows and deep frown were only half of the anger etched into his stone-cold features. The blazing fury behind his golden eyes resembled a molten inferno, growing only hotter when Edward actually laid eyes on his bound brother and the bloody rag still pressed to Beryl's ear.

She hadn't even realized she'd said his name, her voice scratchier than Alphonse beside her, but grabbing his attention nonetheless. Despite the clear anger on his face, Ed's voice was steady. "It never occurred to me that you could actually get kidnapped," he then gave Beryl an onceover, taking in her nosebleed, bruises, and her missing automail. "The hell happened to you?"

"Brother! This man is a homunculus!" Alphonse exclaimed, answering both Ed's questions at once.

His expression changed instantly, showing his scientific curiosity and his wonder. "Are you serious?"

Greed scoffed, sticking out his neck at Alphonse. "Hey, way to ruin it…"

"He might know a way to get our original bodies back!" as soon as the words left Alphonse, Edward become even more wary of Greed and the Devil's Nest gang. His fists clenched at his sides as his stance widened ever so slightly; he was gearing up for a real fight.

Beryl watched Greed carefully, his grin didn't falter when he moved to stand between her and Ed, even biting his thumb nail between his sharp canines. The eldest Elric finally noticed the marking on his hand, "An ouroboros tattoo…"

"Well, aren't _you_ observant!" his eyes swept over Ed, inhaling through his nose and grinning at the scent of iron permeating throughout the room, from real metal as well as blood. "I was hoping I'd only have to deal with the little armored giant…"

Edward sneered, "Why not just ask your partners what you want to know?"

Greed cocked his head, perplexed but remaining confident enough to keep control over the room. "Partners?"

"Yeah, the rest of the ouroboros gang from the 5th lab… they had a few armor-bonded souls with them too."

The disappointed twitch of his eyebrow went unnoticed, the homunculus grinding his teeth together behind his lips as he listened to Ed. "You don't say…" with his hands on his hips, it was near impossible to see the way he dug his nails into the fabric of his leather pants, but he hid his anger entirely too well. "It's a bit of a long story… but we're not exactly _close_ anymore."

Beryl looked up at Greed, sweat beading on the bridge of her nose, and her hands visibly shaking as she rapidly thought about the possibility of there being more _things_ like Greed out there. Things that looked like people. Things that died and got back up like it was nothing. Things that weren't human.

The inhuman man stalked over to Alphonse, planting his palm on the top of his head, similar to the way Sig had ruffled hair that wasn't there. "Tell you what, you guys are pretty _desperate_ to get your bodies back, right? Well I can teach you how to fabricate your own homunculus in no time at all… all you have to do is tell me how to transmute a soul, sounds fair doesn't it?" he flicked the spike on Al's forehead before returning his hands to his hips. "Classic equivalent exchange… but to be honest, I just don't see why you'd want your old body back."

It must have been so easy for him to think that. If he could die as much as he so chose and still look human enough, then what would he know about wanting a body back. Beryl scowled; Alphonse wasn't normal, and as much as that frightened her, he wasn't nearly as scary as Greed. To die and not worry about staying dead wasn't something a human could feel. If you're human then you get one body, one life, one death. Once you use them up you're done, you don't get to just stand back up and mark it off like a tally in a game. She used to think that Greed wasn't afraid to die, but now she knew that was because he really couldn't, and that made him scarier than he was before.

"Seems like you've got one that's perfect already." He snickered.

"No I don't!" Al snapped, his voice cracking from anger.

Greed scoffed. "You're joking right? You don't need to eat, sleep, you don't even need to use the toilet! Sounds pretty great to me!"

If Alphonse was angry then Edward was furious. The darkness that had formed in his eyes the more Greed ran his mouth looked ready to explode at any moment. A shadow passed across his face and Beryl genuinely felt fear for Greed.

"That's enough…" he whispered, prompting a curious noise from the homunculus. "Shut… you damn… Mouth!"

The sound that left Ed's mouth a moment later sounded like the roar of a hell-bent animal, loud enough to trigger a flinch from almost everyone in the room. His boot slammed down onto the cement floor, his face ablaze with fury as he laid into Greed and the rest of the Devil's Nest gang.

" _It sounds GREAT to you?! It sounds PERFECT?!"_ he growled. " _You don't know ANYTHING about the HELL he's had to go through stuck with that body! **And you wanna know how to transmute a soul? YOU KIDNAP MY BROTHER AND YOU WANNA TRADE SECRETS WITH ME?!**_ "

Everyone, including Alphonse, was visibly shaken by Ed's rage, Beryl inching closer to the armor boy just in case he started swinging.

" _I'm gonna crush you creeps! **I'll smash you, and you! And I won't give you slime ANYTHING!"**_ he bellowed, his wrath vibrating throughout the room in a violent storm. "In other words, there won't be an exchange with _you **SCUUUUMMMM!"**_

A beat of stunned silence passed before Greed clapped his hands together, the gesture oozing sarcasm as Dolcetto gripped the pommel of his sword. "Guess we're doing this the hard way again," he sounded annoyed, but moved towards Edward anyway, the barest glimpse of his blade catching the light as he analyzed his young opponent.

"Don't kill him alright,"

"Yeah yeah…"

He pulled his sword, quick as a dog on the hunt, and lunged for Edward with every intent to maim if not kill, but Ed was quicker. Being as small as he was it was easy for him to evade the blade and get close enough to land a punch to Dolcetto's neck. The chimera gagged on his tongue before he doubled over, his sword discarded and useless.

The blond alchemist pushed his hands together before touching his automail arm, the metal tearing through his white glove with a makeshift blade of his own. "Next." He taunted.

The Avaricious sucked his teeth in disdain. "Roa, get the armored kid out of here, looks like we'll have to dismantle him."

Roa nodded once before throwing a look to Beryl, the now half-deaf girl flinching under his pointed gaze. "What about her?"

Greed waved his hand dismissively. "Take her with you, kill her, I don't care… just make sure she doesn't get in the way."

"Right."

As overly large as Alphonse was, Roa hoisted him _and_ Beryl over each of his massive shoulders with ease, the two of them struggling against him as he quickly carted them off.

"Hey wait a minute!"

"Put me down you cow!"

Edward clenched his teeth, his anger influencing his attack as he swung for the bovine chimera. "Let them go!"

His blade was halted with an ugly sound of metal grinding together, Greed's bare hand being the only thing between the alchemist and his target. Only it wasn't a hand of flesh, as the blade couldn't pierce it. Both of his hands had become a dark grey, his nails extended into iron claws to match his unbreakable shield.

He was fast, each swing and strike aimed for vital points that would end the fight instantly, but Greed was faster, dodging and returning every blow in kind. One of his claws barely missed Ed's head, the boy only losing a strand of his golden hair before he alchemically forced the floor into a step high enough to attack Greed from above. His blade would've cut right into his head, but the homunculus blocked him, his metallic flesh sparking as it clashed with the automail.

"Nope, sorry," he mocked, his wolfish grin returning. "That hand-sword of yours is neat, but it can't even scratch my Ultimate Shield!"

Ed backed up against the wall, clapping his hands and once again manipulating the floor, this time into spikes that barreled towards Greed. He was ready for them however, easily slashing through the cement, but Ed used his distraction to his advantage, shattering a spike with another flash of light. Greed had no choice but to shield his eyes from the debris, the Fullmetal kid lunging for him in that moment, wrapping his legs around Greed's head and using the momentum from his body weight to slam his head into the fragments of cement.

The shards stabbed into his back, his neck, and most of his head, blood spraying out and coating the rubble in red. "Guard your head next time!" the kid gloated.

He wasn't given that much time to bask in his supposed victory, as a clawed hand emerged from the dust, cutting across his abdomen as he frantically backed away. A line of blood sprayed from the wound but it wasn't anything he couldn't power through.

"Ugh… that hurt," Greed shakily pushed himself to his feet, his head still pissing blood but he seemed more annoyed than anything else. "That move would've hospitalized most people."

Ed sneered weakly, the cut in his stomach stinging like hell. "But you're not like most people, huh?"

He pressed his palm against the back of his neck before red sparks of light created spider-webbed threads of flesh across his open wounds, sealing each one until they were completely healed with the crack of his joints. "Well, my body is… the only thing that really sets me apart is my Ultimate Shield and healing power… nothing special, but you're never going to beat me so let's just make a deal."

Edward bared his teeth, gripping his bleeding stomach and glaring up a storm with his calculating stare.

Greed scoffed, noticing the difference between his lack of care for his open wound, and his ballistic rage when the armored kid was even touched.

"Oh… I get it now…" he purred. "You're one of _those guys_ ; you don't care if someone beats the crap out of you… but if someone even threatens to hurt a family member you completely wig out…"

What a waste.

Self-sacrificing bozos like this kid loved to act all selfless, but all they really were was arrogant, and there was nothing Greed hated more than prideful, snot-nosed brats who thought they weren't below him. The brat could call it whatever he wanted, but throwing your life away for others was a pointless way to protect what belonged to you. He understood that at least, wanting to keep others away from what was yours was a little like what humans called protecting what you love, but humans were all the same. They slapped sappy useless names like love on things they possessed. Everyone wants something they can't have, the only difference was that Greed displayed his name loud and proud while humans hid behind mushy names and flimsy morals.

It was exhausting to deal with, so Greed usually decided not to care.

"Careful kid, you lose your temper like this and you're going to lose my information _and_ your little friends." He warned, the amusement gone from his face.

Edward remained on guard. "My brother is fine; he's just waiting for me to kick your ass." Blood dripped from between his fingers. "You've already told us you're not immortal, remember? And your Ultimate Shield doesn't cover much…"

Greed couldn't help himself, the laughter poured from his lips and he cackled like a hyena. "Sorry to disappoint you kid, but I've been holding back!"

He shed his fur-collared jacket, tossing it aside as his shield began to climbing and spread over his arms. Ed could only stare, his fear growing the more the iron flesh enveloped Greed's body.

"This covers my handsome face, so I try not to wear it that much," he smirked, the Ultimate Shield engulfing his face completely, transforming the human-looking man into the metal-skinned monster he was underneath. "I wasn't kidding _kid_ , try all you like, but you're not going to beat me!"

Edward only blamed himself for the beating he knew he was about to take, well, he blamed Greed mostly, but himself a little bit too.

The homunculus wrapped his claws around Ed's neck, picking him up and slamming him head first into the floor. He screamed out in pain as debris cut into his head, dripping into his eyes and obscuring his vision. "Doesn't feel too good does it?" Greed taunted, no doubt this was revenge for the head slam he received earlier, but unlike him, Ed couldn't heal himself on a dime.

He gripped the blade of the boy's automail arm, tearing it clean off and tossing it away along with most of the internal pieces of the appendage, leaving it in scrapped tatters. Ed grimaced at the thought of how angry Winry would be if he broke it again.

Satisfied with his work, Greed threw the kid into the wall with a violent smack, his blood painting ugly streaks of red on the cinderblocks.

He was thoroughly beaten down, twitching in pain and hesitating to get back up.

"You dead yet?"

There was nothing his body wanted more than to fall asleep, he could thank his concussion for that, but he wasn't down for the count just yet. Edward painfully pushed himself up, his arm creaking in protest as he found his balance and took a fighting stance.

"There you go, you're chalk full of piss and vinegar!"

He threw a punch, his metal fist colliding with Greed's jaw in a spray of bits and gears, but the monster didn't get a scratch. His face was met with a literal iron fist; Greed's hand enclosing around his face and squeezing.

"I appreciate the effort, but you just can't _win_!"

Ed was tossed into a pile of crates like a ragdoll, the wood splintering and breaking in a shower of dust as he collapsed in a heap of blood and metal. Greed grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, hoisting him up high off the ground and giving him a shake.

"You ready to talk now?"

Completely powerless and only alive because he was allowed to be, the golden-haired boy let out a breathless laugh. "Thanks for toying with me…" he whispered, confusing the homunculus literally holding his life in his iron grip. "You gave me just enough time to cool off and start thinking clearly…"

"What?" Greed brought the boy closer, growling in his face as his enlarged fangs hovered an inch away from cutting into him.

Ed attempted to move his arm, the wired nerves frayed but not broken as he flexed his fingers back and forth. "Man… is my mechanic amazing or what?" he asked, more afraid of Winry's impending wrath than he was of Greed. "Even after all this my arm works perfectly."

The ringing of his hands clapping together was the only warning he gave as he touched Greed's arm, blue light darted in every direction, becoming bright and erratic enough for Ed to wiggle himself free of the man's hold.

Greed shook his arm slightly, neither seeing or feeling a difference, and deciding it was just a light show so the kid could get free.

He sighed. "How long do you want to drag this out kid? It would be so much easier if you just stayed down!" clenching his fist, the metal monster aimed a punch into Edward's stomach, but this time, the short-statured alchemist was ready for him.

He threw his own iron punch, meeting Greed's fist with his own, but the only difference between them was that Edward had formed dagger-like spikes on his knuckles, each of them stabbing right through the Ultimate Shield and into the flesh beneath.

The homunculus grunted in pain as he watched his unbreakable shield wither and break away like burnt paper, revealing the bloody muscle tissue below. He stared in fascination as the wound healed over before his shield encompassed his hand once more, clenching his fist he punched the wall, the cinderblock shattering under his strength.

"Well that was bizarre wasn't it… good as new though," he laughed.

Edward said nothing, continuing to stare him down as he motioned for the man to come towards him. He had something up his sleeve, but Greed didn't know that yet.

When the creature attacked again, Ed evaded his kick, planting his open palm in the center of his stomach, the same flash of blue light consuming the room long enough for the boy to back up. Once again he touched his hands to the floor, spikes rising up from the cement and stampeding towards Greed.

"Please, again? Try another move you-" he was cut off as two stalagmites pierced his shield and dug deep into his sternum. The same affect took place; his metal coat crumbled like sand as blood poured from the wound. "What… the hell did you do to my shield…" Greed moaned as he staggered back.

The room was painting itself red the longer their fight went on, but at least now Edward had one leg up on the monster. Pun unintentional.

He spat a mouthful of blood to the side. "It's pretty simple when you think about it; you may be a homunculus, but you shouldn't have told me your body is human… considering that means a third of it is made of carbon." Red light shone from Greed's stomach as the torn flesh healed itself. "The hardness of carbon depends on how the atoms are arranged, so it's obvious that's what your shield is made of… and the rest is simple alchemy."

The smug look on his face ignited a fire in Greed's belly, his hunger for a real fight finally killing his boredom. "Glad to hear, it's no fun if it's not a challenge!" he shouted as he lunged for the boy, his claws extended as he swiped at his face.

He just didn't count on the runt blocking his strike and landing a solid punch into his freshly healed abdomen.

"And there's one other thing I noticed!" he continued, turning and slashing the jagged metal of his elbow across Greed's shield, shredding the decomposing metal and carving a jagged line into his skin. "You can't harden your shield _and heal_ at the same time!"

 _Well shit, it's safe to say I underestimated this brat._

God he hated people who were as full of themselves as this kid, and he might be calling the kettle black, but all he really had to do here was wait for the punk to bleed out while Roa and Dolcetto escaped with the armored kid scot free. "Not that this isn't fun and all, but how do you expect to keep going the way you are?" he taunted, watching with glee as the kid wobbled on his own feet.

Ed pressed his hand harder against his still bleeding side, cursing up a storm internally as he clenched his teeth. As hard as he was fighting, Greed's healing didn't seem to have an end, so he couldn't keep rearranging random atoms on his body _and_ evading his deadly strikes forever. He'd need a miracle to keep going in his condition…

It was then that the door exploded off its hinges in a shower of smoke and debris, drawing both of their attentions towards it.

" _Sorry to barge in like this…_ "

Edward gasped, half out of sheer relief and the other out of confusion as Izumi Curtis herself waltzed into the bloody room, carting an unconscious chimera along with her. "T-Teacher?!"

"You… _damn imbecile!_ " undeterred by her former student's injuries, Izumi flung her chimera victim into Ed, knocking him into the wall with a violent smack. "You think it's funny not to put the broom away?! _I asked you a question!_ "

"N-no! I'm so sorry!" Ed stuttered fearfully.

Izumi just sighed, exasperated more than anything else, and thoroughly fed up with the amount of trouble Edward and Alphonse had gotten themselves _and_ their guest involved in. Now she was going to have to help them clean up their mess, just like always.

She turned to the homunculus, unamused and unfazed by his monstrous appearance. "Thanks for the hospitality, he definitely needed the exercise."

Ed managed to push the unconscious chimera away from him, scrambling towards his teacher.

"Teacher, be careful! He's…"

"Yes I know, I could _hear_ the two of you _all the way down the hall!_ "

Greed sneered. "Oh give me a break! Don't tell me you're going to start anything lady… it's no fun fighting a woman,"

Izumi was too quick for him though, grabbing him by the forehead before he could even react. The blue flash of light that accompanied her alchemy was enough to send spots across his vision, but he couldn't even blink in time to avoid the high kick she planted right into his face. Greed was sent flying into a wall, gasping in pain as half his handsome face was revealed behind his Ultimate Shield.

He just couldn't help himself. He started shaking with gleeful laughter as he fixed Izumi with a deadly smile.

"Well now! Just what the hell are _you?_ "

Izumi clenched her fists.

"What am I?"

Her thumb extended as she brought her arm up and jammed it into her chest.

" ** _I'm a housewife!"_**

* * *

 **Jezus Fucking Christ! I am SO sorry i haven't updated in 3 MONTHS! But it has been a bit rough; my cat recently passed away and it was pretty hard, I mean she was with me for as long as I could remember and then she just wasn't. It got harder to keep developing this story what with Beryl having her own cat who was happy and alive when mine wasn't. But anywho… I'm happy to say that it's getting better and I WILL be continuing this story. Count on that ;) Ciao!**


	14. A Shadow World Beneath Our Own

**Chapter 14: A Shadow World beneath our Own**

 _The Devil's Nest_

"What an interesting discovery for such a routine inspection…"

The rising sun shone on blue uniforms as a single brown eye stared into the entrance of the infamous bar, his other obscured by his eyepatch.

"Move in!"

* * *

Dolcetto lead Roa through the sewers, the two of them being hasty but silent as they toted Martel, the armored kid, _and_ their little hostage when the canine chimera stopped. He sniffed the air, frowning and tensing up as his hand inched towards his sword.

"Something doesn't smell right to me,"

Roa growled, a low grating sound that came from deep in his belly.

Beryl chewed at the ropes around her wrists, fruitlessly biting at them in hopes of getting free. She felt Dolcetto grab a lock of her hair and pull; not as hard as Greed had, but enough to move her attention, glaring as she hissed at him. "Gonna have to put her in with Martel, think you can handle it?"

Roa set Alphonse down before opening his chest plate, the blond snake still keeping him immobile from the inside. She rolled her eyes before puffing out an impatient breath, "It's insulting how much you doubt me."

"Keep her quiet and I'll never doubt you again," he barked, grabbing the young girl by the scruff of her ugly yellow sweater and tossing her into the hollow cavity of Al's chest.

Martel wrapped her legs around Beryl's torso, locking her in while still controlling Al with her arms. "Gladly."

It didn't stop the brat from struggling, however. "Let go of me you frickin' hag!" she yowled.

"Please… will you shut up already!" the snake then jammed the heel of her booted foot into Beryl's mouth, gagging and affectively silencing her. For now.

Dolcetto sealed them inside, sighing with relief now that he didn't have to listen to that kid keep running her mouth.

"You know what this smells like to me? Old times," the cow grumbled, picking up Alphonse once more.

Yeah… old times like with the military. When they were nothing but names on a piece of paper given to their families while they were poked and prodded with needles and shot full of shady alchemy.

Old times indeed.

* * *

Izumi had had quite enough of those two brats constantly getting into trouble. She gives Alphonse a simple task: sweep the outside of the shop while Edward cleans the deli counter, and what do they do? Al gets himself kidnapped, she has the pleasure of finding Ed covered in blood with busted automail, and Beryl is nowhere to be found.

Now she is the one who has to clean up this mess.

Said mess being the homunculus Greed, as Ed had called him. A monstrous looking thing that walked and talked like a human but was clearly the farthest thing from. As little patience as she had left, Izumi still prepared her fighting stance, ready to split every last atom in this bastards body if she had to.

Greed's shoulders were tense, his violet eyes glancing between Edward and Izumi with close precision. They simply stared at one another as silence flooded the destroyed cement room. Silence that was shattered by Greed's amused cackling.

"Ha! A housewife and a hot-headed brat, what a team!" he took a single step backwards towards the exit. "Though to be honest, not one I'm particularly interested in fighting, so I'll just be on my way."

" _You coward!"_ Izumi barked before her mouth spewed blood.

Edward rushed to help his teacher while Greed used the golden opportunity to duck out. He ran right out the door and disappeared down the hall, his Ultimate Shield receding into his handsome human form once again.

"Teacher what's wrong?!" Ed yowled, the senior alchemist nearly collapsing as he slung her arm over his shoulder.

Izumi ground her teeth together, red droplets running down her chin as she growled in annoyance. "He ran away… how pathetic."

"Are you okay now?" his voice betrayed how exhausted he was, his own blood running into his eye and down his face onto his clothes. He had to say though, for fighting significantly less than he had, his teacher was in worse shape, coughing up another splash of blood before fully collapsing in his arms. "Teacher! Just hang on!"

"Freeze! Amestris Military Police!" the appearance of two soldiers armed with pistols pointed right at them drew a gasp from Ed's lips.

 _The hell was the military doing here?_

* * *

It was safe to say that this was _the worst_ day of her entire life on this earth. Between getting her automail _ripped out_ and Martel's muddy _boot_ shoved in her mouth, Beryl was thoroughly _pissed off._

Alphonse had been ditched by Dolcetto and Roa about ten minutes ago, Martel and Beryl still inside his chest. The bright side was that the blond snake wasn't strong enough to keep the two of them from moving by herself while they struggled constantly. Al had actually managed to tip himself over, inching forward at a snail's pace even with Martel giving her all to make him hold still.

"Why won't you just _stay put_?!" she hissed. Beryl kept gnawing at her boot, actually managing to grab at the older woman's leg with her bound hands and bite her ankle. She was sure there was a joke in there somewhere. Martel yelped before shoving the girl's face into Al's chest with a metallic clang. "Quit struggling you brats!"

Becoming even more irritated; she pulled off her sock with her teeth before stuffing it into the younger girl's mouth, Beryl making a face of disgust but otherwise unable to use her mouth. The snake pressed her other boot-clad foot hard onto Beryl's hands, lest they repeat the ankle biting.

Suddenly, among the sounds of struggling, footsteps echoed on the sewer walls. Martel kept her foot on Beryl's hands, her other foot pressed against her cheek as if she were a step stool as she popped open Al's helmet.

"Greed!" she called, the relief in her voice the complete opposite of what Beryl felt.

"Ah, Martel, I'm glad to see that you're safe."

The amusement in his voice made her shrink down further into Alphonse's armor, wanting literally anything other than to be here right now. Despite how close she had gotten to everyone in the two years she'd spent here, she'd always been wary of Greed. Even after he'd taken her in, gave her back her hearing, and instantly accepted her as part of his gang, he always gave her a sour feeling in her gut. After today, she didn't think it would ever go away.

"What's going on up there? No one else has made it back yet,"

Greed sucked his teeth, "Yeah… things have gotten a little out of hand, so we need to figure a way out of here,"

Beryl rolled her eyes; that was just classic _him_. He'd rather skulk around in the shadows forever rather than do anything even _close_ to moral. Then again, even after she left… she hadn't really been all that different. Guess the jerk really had rubbed off on her after all.

 _"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."_

As soon as she heard his voice, Beryl felt like the automail in her left ear had gotten heavier. Her ears rung like they did when it rained, only this time it wasn't like static from a wool sweater rubbing on the carpet. This felt like a weight had been tied to her ears and someone was pulling on it. It felt heavy, and… wrong somehow.

"What do you want, old man?" Greed sneered.

Al gasped as a man emerged from the shadows. "It's the Fuhrer!"

"King Bradley?!" Martel pressed down on her hands harder, making Beryl whimper around her gag.

She couldn't see him, but she could _hear_ the smirk in Greed's voice. "Well, well, well… what's the highest man in the country doing down _here_?"

He was met with only silence, the Fuhrer smiling warmly, but it felt like he was taking him apart with his eyes. Unraveling every thread that made him up trying to determine the perfect way to bring him to his knees with those swords of his. Greed could practically _smell_ the untapped anger wafting off this guy; the rage perfectly hidden behind his baby-kissing smile. "Do you know how old I am?" he suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Greed wasn't really in the mood to gripe about his age.

Bradley ignored him. "Today marks my 60th birthday… it's a shame your body begins to stop moving the way you want it to, so if you don't mind, I'd like to finish this quickly and go home."

Greed laughed in his face, and Beryl felt her ears ring as his metal shield covered his hand. "If old age doesn't suit you, maybe just _die!_ "

His legs barely twitched before Bradley was on him, his sword already raised post-strike. A spray of blood coated the ground as Greed's hand fell from his arm, cut directly at the seam where his flesh ended, and his shield began. His eyes widened at the sight of his bloody stump, red sparks popping around the edge of the wound as it tried to heal itself.

Bradley's friendly smile was nowhere to be found. His eye cold as ice as the beginnings of a snarl formed on his face.

His wolfish grin hid the twitch of fear in his features. "Well look at that! The old timer is still pumping after all!" Greed's hand wasn't even fully reformed before the Fuhrer pounced again, this time slashing and stabbing at his vital points almost faster than Greed could dodge him. He landed ever few hits, cutting his cheek, his arms, his chest, in angry bleeding lines on his body that weren't healing as fast as he needed them to. The old man was just moving too fast. Greed couldn't see an opening to strike, so all he could do was dodge and keep moving away from him.

Maybe he shouldn't underestimate this geezer…

" _Greed!_ " Martel called out, only to be quickly shushed by Alphonse. If Fuhrer Bradley found her inside him he'd surely kill her, and he had no idea what he'd do to Beryl.

* * *

Roa hadn't seen this much action since Ishval, and he certainly hadn't faced an opponent strong enough to take him on in _decades_. Major Alex Louis Armstrong was by far his strongest foe, second only to Greed himself, and his massive sledgehammer was evenly matched with the Major's metal-clad fists.

A flash of blue light exploded out when the Major's punch met the head of Roa's hammer, the sharpened metal reshaping to form a smaller version of the man himself. He clenched his teeth in frustration, while the balding behemoth only flexed vainly.

"Behold! You have just had the rare pleasure of witnessing the famous _Armstrong Statuary Technique_!" he bellowed, the sweat on his shirtless body sparkling in the light of his own vanity. Roa scoffed, tossing away his now useless hammer.

"Well then," he sneered. "I guess my ordinary methods aren't going to work."

He hated transforming; the feeling of his muscles rapidly growing and those damn horns pushing through the flesh of his forehead was a type of pain that he was used to, but at the same time, he would never be used to it. But if it was what it took to protect the people he'd taken as his family, then he'd do it a thousand time more.

"My, how peculiar," Armstrong commented, in awe of Roa's massive stature carved from pure muscle. The bovine chimera threw a punch, but the Major managed to dodge before lodging his own fist in between his opponent's eyes. Roa grimaced as the metal spikes decorating his knuckles dug into his skin, replying with a strike of his own into the man's bare stomach.

Back and forth the two exchanged blows, evenly matched as two power houses colliding over and over like two mountains smashing against each other.

Roa planted his palm on the Major's cheek, bending his arm behind his back and slamming his face into the cinderblock wall. He dragged him across the wall, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake and cutting deep into the Major's skin.

Armstrong managed to land a strike, affectively freeing himself from his opponent's hold as they exchanged blow after blow. He brushed a stream of blood away from his eye, "You sir, are a most commendable adversary."

The chimera grunted. "You're not too bad yourself, Major Armstrong." They circled each other like two battling bulls preparing to charge again. "The last time I saw you in action was the Ishvalan Civil War,"

His lip twitched slightly upward beneath his mustache. "A former ally… even more a reason to end this, no more blood needs to be spilt today… surrender!"

"And just let myself be killed? Never!" Roa snarled in return, disgusted that a former fellow soldier would ask him to lay down his life for the crime of simply _existing_ as the abomination he was.

The two prepared themselves to clash once more, but were interrupted by a storm of gunfire. "Major, get down!" one soldier called out, the bulk of a man hitting the deck as Roa felt his arms and legs filling up with lead. Bullets pierced his rock-hard hide one by one, but before he could come up with a proper escape, three soldiers fell in a spray of blood.

" _Roa!_ "

Dolcetto cut into a pipe on the wall with his sword, the two chimeras disappearing into the wall of steam that emerged, bullets ricocheting harmlessly around them now.

They both gave the Major a look of disgust, and they were gone.

* * *

" _You Bastard!_ "

The number of times Greed had gotten slashed, cut, or eviscerated by Bradley bad enough for any human to die in seconds had blurred after it reached double digits. He knew he was losing, that combined with the panic of knowing that Martel and the Rat sat defenseless mere feet away had Greed lashing out like a cornered mad dog. He'd lost his cunning, his edge, and was getting his ass handed to him by a _human_. Humans weren't supposed to be stronger than him; that was the whole _point_. So what the hell was Bradley, really?

The Fuhrer used his swords to push Greed back, the razor edges piercing his throat and emerging in a cross through his neck as blood flooded from the wound and out of his mouth.

"I understand why you think you have an advantage over a man like me," he hissed, his voice hoarse but calm at the same time. "After all, I possess neither your impenetrable ultimate shield nor an ultimate spear that can pierce any substance… but I'll tell you a secret."

His eyepatch lay discarded in the water below, shed like the skin of a snake.

"Do you know how I managed to distinguish myself in the storm of bullets on the battlefield time after time? To rise to my current position…"

Greed managed to tilt his head up, his wounds pissing blood, and a vein on his forehead bulging with strain as his body struggled to heal itself.

"You… you're… a…"

For the first time since he was born, Greed felt his artificial heart pounding inside his chest. He could feel himself locking up, real _fear_ piercing his body as he watched Bradley open his left eye to reveal the ouroboros mark underneath. Greed fell silent; he had no snarky remarks or jokes about his messed-up family to quip in Bradley's direction. All he felt was the horrible realization that he was outmatched, and that he would die here at this damn thing's hands.

Bradley's lips upturned into a victorious smirk.

"I may not have the protection of your ultimate shield… but I can see every weakness with my _ultimate eye_."

He tore his swords free, and Greed fell to his knees, choking on his own blood as angry red sparks tried and failed to heal his body.

"Now Greed… how many times will I have to kill you before you _stay dead_?"

* * *

It was silent and dark as Alphonse sat and waited for something to happen. Martel had stopped holding him still, and Beryl had stopped struggling, all of them equally afraid but none of them admitting it. The blond snake had removed the younger girl's gag, now holding her in place with just her arms. But to be honest, Beryl didn't really feel like escaping anymore; inside Al's armor had to be safer than whatever the hell was out there.

"Where the hell is Greed?" Martel hissed, coiling her arms tighter around the brunette. More so for the slight comfort rather than keeping her still.

Alphonse looked around, "I don't know, it's too dark to see anything."

The quiet was driving Beryl crazy; the ringing in her ear had only subsided when the Fuhrer drove Greed deeper into the sewer, away from them. She knew King Bradley and the military were supposed to be the good guys, but the dread she felt when he was near scared her more than Greed did.

She winced, pressing her hands against her ears as the ringing came back. It felt like gravel being shaken around inside her implants as the static grew stronger.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Martel snapped, covering Beryl's ears with her hands as the younger girl began to tear up from the pain.

Footsteps cut through the silence like a knife. The two peeked through the chainmail of Al's armor, their voices leaving them as they watched Greed emerge from the darkness, one of his arms missing and a sword protruding from his neck.

The man Beryl once thought was indestructible, fell to the ground in a bloody heap, the sword in his throat driven deeper into him as a result. Her skull throbbed as the ringing grew louder, and she shut her eyes as she desperately tried to turn the volume down. She could feel bile building up in her throat, the nausea and the gore making it near impossible to keep down whatever was left in her stomach.

The Fuhrer pulled his sword from Greed, planting his boot on his back to do so.

"No Greed!" Martel cried, only to be quickly silenced by Alphonse. It only made her struggle more, but the armor boy held firm, refusing to let her intervene. "Let me out dammit!"

"I can't! He'll kill you!"

Beryl wanted so badly to disappear, to be anywhere than this place. She buried her face in her knees, pressing her hands harder against her ears to try and block out what was happening. To pretend she wasn't here, that this wasn't happening, that this wasn't _real_.

Everything was too loud.

"That makes 15 times I've killed you; how many lives have you got left, hm?" the Fuhrer sounded amused, like he found the whole thing funny.

She clenched her teeth together, frustrated and terrified tears burning her skin as they fell in rivers down her face.

" _Damn… you…"_

"Aw crap… I kind of wished we'd died back there _."_ Beryl could hear the shake in Dolcetto's voice, and smell how much blood he and Roa were covered in.

 _"_ There's still time to tuck your tail and run away _."_

 _"_ Trust me I'd love to… but I've got this obnoxious sense of canine loyalty _."_ He drew back his Xingese blade, the sound of the metal like knives in Beryl's ear.

Martel gasped, her relief at hearing her friends alive was quickly destroyed by the realization of what they were planning to do. Dolcetto quickly cut the chains around Alphonse's wrists, the metal falling in a broken pile around them. "Do us a favor kid, and get them out of here."

Past all the deafening white noise, Beryl heard every once of defeat in his voice, the quiet resignation as he let them go, and it made her cry harder.

"Protect them…"

The older woman fought and scratched at Al's armor, a soldier at heart, she refused to leave her comrades to fight while she did nothing, but Alphonse wouldn't budge. Beryl could hardly even tell what was happening anymore, but she could hear Martel's voice breaking as she begged Al to let her fight. She could hear Dolcetto and Roa letting out battle cries as they charged forward, only to be silenced by the swing of Bradley's blade.

She felt like everything around her was closing in, slowly crushing her, and no matter what she did, she was trapped. She tried to be smaller, to hug her knees to her chest and cover her ears, close her eyes, and block out the world. But the world was too loud, it had always been _too loud_.

As much as it hurt her pride, Beryl wanted to cry out for Greed, for Roa, Dolcetto, even Martel. They'd hurt her so badly, but they had still taken her in when she needed it most, they gave her a home and a place to belong, and she'd run away…

" _Roa!"_

She'd messed everything up. She ruined everything…

" _Dolcetto!"_

Now they were dead, and it was _all her fault!_

The hand that touched her cheek was too gentle to be Martel, but the callouses and sharp nails matched her perfectly, convincing Beryl to open her wet eyes. The blond snake was snarling, and _crying_ ; Martel never cried, no one in the Devil's Nest did, _ever._

The older woman wiped her tears away with her thumbs, moving Beryl's hand away from her still-functioning ear before leaning in closely.

"No matter what happens, you _stay quiet_ … I don't care how scared you are, if you make even a single sound, you _will get killed_ , do you understand me?" there was no room for questioning, so Beryl forced herself to nod.

Martel pulled away from her, darkness falling over her face as the younger girl could only stare in building horror as the blond thrust her arm back into the hollow space of Alphonse's arm.

Her hand closed tight around Fuhrer Bradley's throat, squeezing him tight enough to snap his neck.

" ** _Die Bradley!"_**

Beryl reached out to her desperately.

" _Martel!_ "

Everything happened too fast.

The Fuhrer thrust his sword into the opening between Alphonse's helmet and his body, and the blade, still covered in the others' blood, pierced Martel's neck and pushed out just past her stomach. Beryl's cheek burned as the sword carved a deep line into her skin, but she felt nothing as she watched Martel twitch once before the life left her eyes and an ocean of blood spouted from her body.

It covered Al's armor.

It soaked into Beryl's clothes.

It sprayed across her face, mixing with her own fresh blood.

Everything was red.

Everyone was dead.

Beryl would've given anything for silence as her screams filled the empty sewer tunnel.

* * *

 **This is probably my longest chapter yet, and for good reason, I knew exactly where I wanted to end it. As rough as Beryl's life was, she was as sheltered as any child. and things for her will get worse before they get better. (Also, guess who learned the difference between a hearing aid and a cochlear implant?!) Again sorry about the wait, and see you nest time! Ciao!**


	15. Hear No Evil

**Chapter 15: Hear No Evil**

When he was little, his favorite thing to do was read in his mother's lap. He'd sit on her legs and speak each word as she pet his hair. Ed was reading bigger, more advanced books, almost always nearby, but sometimes it would be just Alphonse and his mother. Enjoying each other's warmth as they read together, just the two of them. A kind of peace he rarely felt anymore, but wanted to again more than anything.

He felt like he was drowning in memories just like that. He didn't know where he was, or what he had been doing before, but he remembered his mother.

" _Mom… mom come back!"_

He felt himself reach out for her, but the person who took his hands didn't look like his mother at all. They were white, pure white, and smiling. But then they weren't. Then they were blonde, and wearing his clothes, and still smiling.

Always smiling.

 _"Al…"_

 _"Al wake up…"_

He looked down at his own hands. They were black. Like coal. Like oil. He heard screaming. It sounded like Mom… like Martel… like Beryl… like Ed…

" _Al!"_

* * *

"Al!"

Alphonse flinched as Edward yelled at him.

"Brother?"

Ed sighed, looking exhausted, and rightfully so. He sported a bandage across his forehead and had two slashed cuts across his cheeks, bruising peek out from the edges of his clothes. He looked like he'd been in a fight. "You okay?"

Al stared at him. "Are _you_ okay? You're covered in blood!"

Edward looked down at his younger brother's chest, sadness infecting his features. Confused, he followed his brother's gaze, only to meet fresh stains of scarlet painted across his chest, as well as a trail of the same wet color leading to a figure covered by a sheet.

Everything came back to him at once.

Greed, the Devil's Nest, Fuhrer Bradley, Martel, Beryl…

So the body that was covered up… Al couldn't find the words to speak.

Major Armstrong knelt down before the brothers, an understanding look on his face. "We thought it best to remove her before you awoke," the apology was left unspoken.

He buried his face in his hands, shame coursing through him as he thought about how he failed to protect her like Roa and Dolcetto asked. Their final request and he'd failed.

"I couldn't save her…" He looked back at Martel, only seeing one body rather than two, and remembering that another person was inside his armor when she died. "Where's Beryl? Is she okay?!"

Al frantically looked around for her, not seeing any trace of the odd-eyed girl. The Major placed a firm hand on his metal shoulder, a look of sad exhaustion on his face. "Young Miss Desiree sustained numerous injuries at the hands of your captors, but thanks to the Fuhrer she is otherwise unharmed."

The brothers both let out sighs of relief; it'd be a long time before she was alright, but at least she was alive. "Thank god…" Edward whispered. He could feel every ounce of regret and sorrow his little brother was feeling; and why shouldn't they be upset? People died today; maybe not innocent or good people, but they were _people_ , and Beryl had had a front row seat to all of it. "Let's just find her and go home, kay?"

Alphonse looked into his brother's eyes and thought about that memory of mom. He used to think his big brother was the strongest person alive, but they were right beside each other in their struggle. Walking the same seemingly endless path of hardship together, and although they'd never meant to drag others into that struggle, it had happened anyway. People always got hurt, people always seemed to _die._

All they could ever do was keep moving and hope things would turn out okay. Alphonse had to trust in that, if nothing else.

He sighed defeatedly and nodded to his brother.

"Not so fast you two," a familiar commanding voice sounded. The Fuhrer himself was still among the other soldiers, "There are a few questions I need to ask you before you can leave, firstly… have you had any previous dealings with the man who referred to himself as _Greed_?"

Edward and the Major both stood at attention in the Fuhrer's presence. "Of course not,"

"Do you believe Young Miss Desiree to be affiliated with Greed and his gang in any way?"

"No way, she owes me one, that's the only reason she was here at all." He was too tired to hide the guilt he felt.

Bradley nodded once. "One more question, did you happen to trade any manner of information with him?" the soldiers flanking him had their guns raised, as if there was still a threat close by, but a glance to his side told Ed that _he_ was apparently that possible threat. Every soldier besides Armstrong was poised to shoot him if he so much as took a step towards Bradley, but he kept his cool. More so out of exhaustion than tactical calmness.

"None at all. The military wasn't mentioned, not even once…"

"That isn't my concern, let me be more specific; if you arranged a deal, or shared _any_ knowledge with him, then I'll _execute_ both of you right now." His single uncovered eye was icy and sharp, enough to pierce the resolve of any man. "I'll ask again, did you share _any_ knowledge that might affect the military?"

The tension couldn't be shattered with bullets even if the soldiers tried.

Ed could feel his heart weigh heavy inside his chest; it was obvious the military knew about Greed and what he was doing, why else would they bring an army down here? To take down a low-life gang? No way in hell it was that simple. Something else was going on, and the Fuhrer wanted to know if Ed was dumb enough to try and dig deeper.

"No, can we go now?"

Bradley trapped him in his hardened gaze before his expression softened. "You really are an honest kid…" he smiled, motioning for his soldiers to stand down. "Alright men, pull out."

Without another word the Fuhrer left and his men followed, the only one staying behind being Major Armstrong. He placed his massive hand on Ed's back, "Miss Desiree was escorted into questioning not long ago, she should've been released by now if you'd like to retrieve her."

The brothers exchanged a glance before nodding, Alphonse pulling himself to his feet as Ed replaced his chest plate. He was still covered in blood, they both were, but right now finding Beryl was important.

They had to fix their mistake.

* * *

Once, about two months after Greed had taken her in, Martel had tried to teach her how to fight. Basic stuff like how to dodge a hit and throw a punch; she'd gotten the crap beaten out of her, but the blond still picked her up, dusted her off, and told her to try again. Beryl never did manage to get a hit in, but Martel would give her a smile full of pride anyway.

She'd give anything to have that back. That silent affection each member of the Devil's Nest would give, like when Greed noogied her hair like an obnoxious older brother, or when Roa once told her that he'd gotten news his son had gotten married and the sadness behind his stoic face was something she'd almost forgotten. Even Dolcetto, as grumpy as he was, slipped her picture books he had stolen once or twice.

The bad they had done outweighed the good, but Beryl felt so cold at the thought of never seeing them again.

The military medic had patched up her ear, bandaged her bruised ribs, and slapped a patch over the gash on her cheek before letting her go. But it wasn't as though she really had anywhere to go from there, so she'd wandered off into the familiar alleyways of Dublith, finding a dark and quiet corner between two old dress shops and settling down for the first time all day.

She hugged her knees to her chest despite the throbbing pain in her ribs, staring off into space as the day replayed in her mind. The blue sky, the soft clean fabric of her favorite sweater, the warmth of the sun, all of it faded into an angry red color. The now purple bruises on her body, the stained metal of her broken automail, Greed… Martel… everyone…

Beryl whimpered, burrowing her face into her knees as she hid from the world. More tears ran down her face as she thought about the fire in Martel's eyes fading into darkness as she was impaled on King Bradley's sword.

That stupid color red…

She decided then and there that she hated red.

Red like Greed's tattoo and Martel's blood and Alphonse's eyes that glowed inside his empty body.

She ignored the sound of clanking metal footsteps passing by the alley before quickly turning back in and jogging into the barren space. Al stared at the familiar scene before him; a girl in the trash, covered in dirt and needing help. Sure, the last time he offered help to a street-girl he'd gotten scratched, but he wasn't afraid of that anymore.

He reached out for her, gently placing his hand on top of her head, "Beryl?"

The suddenness of his voice must have scared her, because the next thing he knew she lashed out, scratching her rough nails across his arm and leaving rivets in the metal. "Go away!" she hissed. Her eyes were blazing with fury and sparkling with frustrated tears, "Why would you bring me here? What even the hell _are you_?!" she slammed her fist against his bloody armor, the hollow metal ringing out like a bell. She didn't know what else to do but hit him again, and again, over and over she punched his chest until her knuckles became as bloody as the rest of her.

Al grabbed her smaller hands in his own, "Please listen," he begged. "When our mom died, Ed and I used Human Transmutation to try and bring her back… but alchemists are forbidden from using it because it doesn't work right… what we made… it wasn't what we wanted… and the price we paid for that sin was worse."

Beryl just stared at him, her anger mixing with the shock of his story and creating something bitter and ugly in her chest.

"Edward lost his leg… I lost my whole body… and Ed gave his arm to put my soul in this suit of armor." He touched his hand to the center of his chest, looking sad and lost, despite his face being unable to move like a human's.

She didn't know what to say, or even fully understand what he had said. Human Transmutation? She'd never picked up an alchemy book in her life; for god's sake she lived in an _automail town_ , things like _human transmutation_ didn't make it all the way out to her. But he said they'd used it to try and _bring someone back to life_ … what other kind of messed up crap were they involved in?! What were they dragging her into?

The _Fuhrer himself_ killed Greed.

Was she already on some screwed-up list of people the military keeps tabs on because of them?!

A pit formed in her stomach, and she felt like she was going to be sick.

Beryl stood up, her eyes hidden by her bangs as she walked away from Alphonse, climbed into an empty trashcan, and shut the lid over her head.

Al stared at the can that contained the odd-eyed girl, a noise of confusion leaving him. "Um… Beryl?" he whispered, leaning his nonexistent ear against the trashcan, lightly tapping it with his finger trying to coax her out.

She hugged her knees tighter. " _You're a monster… just like they are…"_

Her words stung him greatly, but he wouldn't turn her away. "Beryl please come out…"

" _Would you have let the Fuhrer kill me too?"_

"Beryl…"

"Is that what happened to your mom? Did she die twice because you and your brother _stuck your noses where they didn't belong_?!"

"That's enough!"

Alphonse considered himself patient and kind, but Beryl had gone too far attacking his mother. Albeit it was immature of him to lash out and kick over the trashcan she was hiding in, scattering the trash inside on the street and the girl tumbling out looking like she'd been hit by a car. "What the hell?!" she hissed.

He saw the angry tears on her face, the dirt under her nails, the blood that covered her clothes, and the bandages on her body, and understood her attitude a little more. Al cupped her face between his hands, the cool metal a stark contrast against her flushed, hot cheeks. Her anger faded into surprise as he forced her to look into his eyes. Red locked with brown and blue and nothing else mattered.

"I know they hurt you… and I know Ed and I are to blame for that… but that's no reason to be cruel!" he didn't mean to yell at her, but she had been unreasonable for too long.

"Huh…?"

Alphonse sighed, the sound echoing within his hollow armor. "Roa, Dolcetto, Martel… even Greed… they made mistakes, but they weren't monsters! They were people who didn't deserve to _die_!" Beryl stared at him, awe gathering in her wet eyes. "They were human… and if we don't treat them like humans than how can we expect them to _act like it!?"_

He gently pulled away from her then, moving his hands from her cheeks to her shoulders as he helped her out of the trash. She was silent as he did so, seemingly in deep thought. Al wanted to think she was a good person, despite acting like a brat, simply because he didn't really know her that well. Although to be fair, she didn't know _him_ very well either.

That would have to change.

His large hands remained on her shoulders as he bowed his head, "I'm so sorry that this happened to you… but I promise, from now on I'll protect you." She furrowed her brow and pressed her lips into a thin line, guilt and exhaustion in her eyes. "Think about what I said?"

Beryl's cheeks reddened and she turned her face away from Al's gaze, pressing the palms of her hands against where his hands once were.

"Yeah… sure, okay."

She sounded so tired, her voice hoarse from screaming and yelling, but Al still heard the sincerity in her voice, and it made him feel at least a little bit lighter. He held out his hand to her, "Let's go home.

The smallest upturn of her lips was the first he had seen of her smile in days.

She reached out and took his hand, its smallness engulfed in Al's larger one.

* * *

Izumi was quite the hardass with her students, but she was also flawlessly kind. A kind of maternity in her gentle touches and soft words that made Beryl burst into tears all over again, the older woman enveloping her in her arms and holding her until her sobs quieted down once more. She led the girl upstairs, putting her in a hot bath while she carefully combed the blood from her hair. When the water was a bright scarlet, Izumi drained the tub and dressed Beryl in a soft, clean evergreen dress, delicately changing her bandages while humming a soothing tune.

By the time everyone had washed off the physical evidence of their day, the trio of young teens had gathered out on the back porch. Beryl sitting on the steps with her uninjured cheek pressed against her knee, and Ed meticulously polishing each piece of Al's armor.

"We didn't want this to happen… but it did… the least we owe you is an explanation." Ed said, his golden eyes locked with Beryl's mismatched ones. "Although it is a long story…" he scratched the back of his head with her metal hand.

Beryl shrugged, "Well, I've got time."

He sighed, stepping towards her and kneeling to her level, the girl moving her head to rest on her arms that were crossed over her legs. "Do you know anything about Human Transmutation?"

She shook her head, "None at all…"

Ed nodded once, not teasing her like she expected him to. "In alchemy there are certain things that are forbidden by the military for alchemists and civilians own safety; you can't turn lead into gold, you can't sacrifice human lives to achieve any kind of alchemy, and you can't use alchemy to alter a person or bring them back from the dead." In that moment, Edward looked far older than fifteen. "When Al and I were kids, our mom died, and we thought that if we did it right, we could use human transmutation to bring her back to life… all we had to do was get the right ingredients, perfect the right theories, and draw the right type of array… but there's another rule in alchemy that no one can break… not even if they tried…"

Beryl listened to every word.

"It's called equivalent exchange, you can't gain something in alchemy if you don't give something to equal value… and the thing about human transmutation… is that _nothing_ is equal to a human soul… the thing we made… it wasn't our mom… we made a working human body… but that thing was like a demon, and Alphonse lost his body as payment for the one we made."

A haunted look appeared in Edward's eyes, and Beryl didn't feel like making fun of him, like she usually would have.

"I lost my leg too…" he pulled up his pant leg to reveal his automail leg, the shiny metal seemingly disgusting to him, a constant reminder of his mistake. "And a gave my arm to put Al's soul in that suit of armor… that part, I don't regret." He clenched his metal fist, his scowl burning with his unwavering resolve. "We became state alchemists to try and find a way to get our original bodies back, but the deeper we dig, the more things get complicated…"

"Like Greed… he said he wanted to trade information with you…"

Ed nodded, "The military is definitely involved… you're not a chimera, or connected to the military at all, and I think they knew that… but it still doesn't explain why they would slaughter everyone…" he stood straight, looking down at the ground deep in thought.

Beryl's brow furrowed. "Roa talked about the Ishvalan war a lot… Dolcetto too, and they talked about getting their lives back from the military, all thanks to Greed."

Ed and Al exchanged a look, dread building between the three of them.

"If they really were transmuted into chimeras because of the military… then the Fuhrer might have gotten rid of them to prevent them from ever speaking out against them!"

"Like tying up loose ends…" the thought made Beryl sick.

Edward pressed his palm against his temple. "This wasn't supposed to happen… Beryl… I really am sorry; I involved you in this and now you might be wanted by the military."

Maybe she was too tired to be afraid, or maybe she really was taking Alphonse's promise to protect her to heart, either way… "Knowing the mess you're in… I'm not all that mad at you darks anymore." She sighed, a smile pulling at her lips. "And if I have to stick with you now, at least I don't have to live in the trash anymore… besides, it's not like I have anywhere else to go."

Edward wanted to yell at her for being an idiot, that this wasn't a laughing matter and that she could get killed, but if he was being honest with himself, if the military had her name on their list, then with the Elric brothers was the safest place for her to be.

He sighed, utterly defeated. "Al and I can keep you safe, at least until we know what's going on. But first…" Ed held up his utterly trashed arm, screws missing, and panels of metal bent or jutting out in ways that made it look like he dug it out of a scrap heap.

Beryl dug her broken right implant out of her pocket, the metal uncoiled and pulled out of shape like a broken spring. "A repair would be nice…"

A wolfish grin spread across Edward's face, "How lucky for us to know the perfect person who gives free repairs?"

The brunette and Alphonse shared a very near giddy expression.

"Looks like we're making a trip back to Rush Valley."

* * *

 **College is kind of depressing. But at least i'm finally pushing out chapters regularly again! I know I didn't include the warning from Armstrong, but that happened before Beryl joined them outside, so it did happen to no worries. Gear up, next chapter we get best-boi, my son, Ling Yao! Ciao!**


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